Page 59 - EarthHeroes

Environment Minister for Brazil and in this role, between 2004 and 2007, she worked to crack down on illegal logging. Large numbers of people were arrested, companies were closed down and equipment, buildings and illegal timber were seized. She made many powerful enemies, but during those years, deforestation of the Amazon was reduced by almost 60 per cent.
Despite these successes, Marina resigned from her role as Environment Minister in 2008 because she felt that her powers were being gradually taken away
so that she was not able to make the changes she needed to protect the rainforest. Since then, she has continued as Brazil’s most successful Green politician, standing for president three times
and winning tens of millions of votes.
Marina has been recognised internationally for her work. In 1996, she won the Goldman Prize – the world’s top environmental award – for fighting alongside Chico for the Amazon rainforest and setting up its first extractive reserves. Today, over 30 years after Chico’s murder, there are now 76 reserves in the Brazilian Amazon, spanning over 14 million hectares. In 2007 she was chosen as a ‘Champion of the Earth’ by the United Nations Environment Programme, an award for outstanding leadership on environmental issues.
Marina’s long battle to protect the
Amazon rainforest is far from over.
Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, is determined to reverse many of the environmental protections she put in place and wants to open up protected areas of rainforest to mining, dams and other development. This has contributed to a huge surge in deforestation and fires to clear the forest. But despite the challenges she and Brazil’s environmentalists face, Marina is positive about
the future. She thinks that they will eventually succeed because the fight for the rainforest is a fight for everyone, rich or poor. And however hard it might be, and however long it might take, one thing is certain: this courageous and principled woman has no intention of ever giving up.
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