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AMAZON EMERGENCY : "WHY EUROPE? (Press release & Video)
The Cacique (Chief) Megaron Txucarramae shows the map of the Kayapo territory to the french press © John Van Hasselt
"AMAZON EMERGENCY", a Planète Amazone campaign, in partnership with the Instituto Raoni
Chief Raoni chose to come back again to Europe six months after Rio +20 for several reasons. Firstly, it is due to the initial support of our 'country' and the special support of presidents such as François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac that Chief Raoni's people succeeded in delimiting and therefore protecting the major part of their territory. Logically, Chief Raoni and his delegation are seeking for Europe to complete the demarcation, which remains the largest of their concerns, as deforestation now reaches the limited indigenous lands.
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CHIEF RAONI : launch of the "AMAZON EMERGENCY" campaign - episode 3
- Press conference in Paris, Grenier des grands Augustins (atelier Picasso), 30/11/2012 -
Speech of Cacique Raoni Metuktire, Supreme Leader of the Kayapo people
Directed by James Amon for Amonimage Productions
On camera : James Amon, Christophe Chauprade, Christophe Palluel, Mathieu Roger.
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"AMAZON EMERGENCY", contributors in the press conference on November 30, 2012 at Grenier des Grands Augustins (Atelier Picasso), Paris: Raoni Metuktire, Megaron Txucarramãe, Bemoro Metuktire, Nicolas Hulot, Gert-Peter Bruch (Planète Amazone), Philippe Desbrosses (Intelligence Verte), Jan Kounen, Frédéric Amiel (Greenpeace France), Ronak Monabay (Les Amis de la Terre) / translation: Arkan Simaan, Marcia Bechara and Cecilia Gutel. |
Extract from the "AMAZON EMERGENCY" press kit :
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« AMAZON EMERGENCY » : Why Europe ?
In April 1989, Chief Raoni left Brazil for the first time to travel to Paris where he began an international campaign (17 countries in 60 days) to initiate an alarm against deforestation. Relayed by most television stations, it helped in raising awareness: deforestation is not only destroying the last indigenous tribes, but it may well affect all our futures. Chief Raoni has always been well received in Europe and the support of presidents and sovereigns including the French Presidents, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prince Charles and Pope Jean-Paul II...
Europe has also been chosen for this campaign because of its very active participation in deforestation in the Amazon: together with its' irresponsible consumption and involvement of European companies in projects damaging to the environment and human rights.
The Amazon, a financial windfall: the French example
French company Alstom is the world's largest manufacturing company involved in the building of large dams. The French government held up to 21% of its capital, whose shares were repurchased in 2006 by Bouygues.
Meanwhile, GDF Suez, a shareholder with 50.1% of the Jirau Dam now holds the rank of the first private electricity producer in Brazil, through the operation of 21 power stations, including 13 hydroelectric stations. Jirau is the second largest hydroelectric program underway in the Americas, after Belo Monte. The French government owns a 36% share of GDF SUEZ, nominated for her role in the construction of the Jirau Dam Public Eye Awards 2010, crowning them as the most irresponsible company in the field of the environment.
Finally, the State has an 85% investment in another French company, EDF, which is interested in investments in Brazil. is now leading the studies on the construction of hydroelectric dams in the country.
French companies involved in these decried industrial projects do not respect their own code of ethics, by working with Brazil. They are complicit in violations denounced by the highest international institutions. They put France in direct contradiction not only with its commitments made during the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, but also with the guidelines agreed by the World Commission on Dams. The Chief Raoni Metuktire, whose real name is Ropni Metyktire, is one of the great leaders of the Kayapo people (of the Metukrire branch), living in the heart of a protected reserve in the Brazilian territory.
Chief Raoni was born in 1930 in the village of Krajmopyjakare (now called Kapot), located in the State of Mato Grosso, Raoni is the son of Cacique Umoro. After a nomadic childhood marked by many tribal wars, the young Raoni and other members of the Metuktire tribe met Westerners for the first time in 1954. The Villas-Bôas brothers, famous Brazilian indigenists, taught him Portuguese and prepared him to face the invasion of the Kuben ("the others", "the whites").
- Translated from French into English by Fabrice Bonin with the help of Lizzie Cornish -
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Planète Amazone (Amazon Planet), a french Non-Governmental Organization dedicated to the protection of tropical forests and its peoples, reflects in particular in Europe and the world, the fights of Cacique Raoni through its official website www.raoni.com and targeted actions.
Date : 14/02/2013