Twenty years ago this past December, Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper in the Brazilian rainforest and eco warrior, was assassinated. Today Mendes’ story and his work are symbols for the battle against the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest. In the 1980’s Mendes spearheaded the protest movement against local cattle farmers and their gunmen whose aim it was to tear down the forest and drive out the rubber tappers. Mendes is said to be a visionary of the sustainable development movement. He first came up with the idea of exclusive reserves for indigenous people who would help to protect the endangered parts of the rainforest.

However, as government figures show, deforestation has risen by over 64 % in the last 12 months. Members of Ibama, an environmentalist task force, discovered that 3000 hectares had illegally been deforested. Ironically enough the deforestation happened in a reserve named after Mendes."Each year on 22 December I ask myself if he died in vain or not. And today, after all these years, the answer is not yet clear to me,” said Alfredo Sirkis, a prominent member of Brazil’s Green party and friend of Mendes.

Indeed, according to a report compiled by the Brazil’s Catholic Land Commission (CPT), 260 rainforest and human rights activists still face death threats in Brazil. Like Mendes they face murder because of their fight against loggers, cattle rangers and farmers. Mendes himself was killed in 1988 by a rancher, who later escaped from prison. Statistically however, only ten people have ever been convicted for a number of over 1000 murders in the 1980’s.

The list of people that are under murder threats includes Frei Henri des Rosiers, a French priest based in the Amazon town of Xinguara, who is fighting against slave labour. With him an Austrian bishop Erwin Krautler has been under police protection for over 2 years, because of his fight against child prostitution in his Amazonian diocese.

The urgency that the CPT report implies can be seen in the case of Francisco da Silva, a 51-year old activist who was killed with one shot in the head last year after having been mentioned by the report.