{"id":273933,"date":"2019-05-03T18:02:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T22:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=273933"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:37:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:37:11","slug":"shaman-davi-kopenawa-discusses-climate-change-at-harvard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/05\/shaman-davi-kopenawa-discusses-climate-change-at-harvard\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We can do our part to stop the destruction\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"Shaman

Shaman Davi Kopenawa speaks about the plight of his tribe, the Yanomami, and the implications for the rest of the world.<\/p>

Reuters\/Luke MacGregor<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018We can do our part to stop the destruction\u2019\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
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\n\t\tLiz Mineo\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tYanomami leader and shaman Davi Kopenawa talks about climate change and the rain forest in advance of conference\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
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Known as \u201cBrazil\u2019s Dalai Lama of the Rainforest,\u201d Davi Kopenawa is a shaman and leader of the Yanomami people, an indigenous tribe in the Amazon.<\/p>\n

His work to protect his tribe\u2019s forest home from invaders and illegal gold miners has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme and by the Brazilian government, which awarded him the Order of Cultural Merit in 2015. He has also won accolades from royalty such as the King of Norway<\/a>, who visited him in his village in the jungle.<\/p>\n

Kopenawa is one of three keynote speakers who will take part in \u201cAmazonia and Our Planetary Futures: A Conference on Climate Change,\u201d a conference May 7 and 8 sponsored by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies<\/a> at Harvard.<\/p>\n

The Gazette spoke to Kopenawa via Skype about his people, the effects of climate change in the Amazon, and the need to protect the rainforest. He spoke in Portuguese\u00a0from Boa Vista, a city in the Amazon region, nearly 4,000 miles away from Rio de Janeiro.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Q&A<\/h2>\n

Davi Kopenawa<\/h3>\n

GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>What message are you bringing on behalf of the Yanomami people to the conference on the Amazon rainforest and climate change?<\/p>\n

KOPENAWA:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>First, let me say thank you for the opportunity to have this dialogue. My people, the Yanomami, have lived in our ancestral homeland, the Amazon rainforest in the northern region of Brazil, for many centuries. In our language, Yanomami means \u201cthe people of the forest.\u201d The forest takes care of us; it keeps us healthy, it gives us food, fresh air, and clean water. We believe we were put in a sacred place to be protected by the forest, and that\u2019s why we want to protect it. There are 26,000 people living in Yanomami land, and over the past three decades, we\u2019ve been suffering the impact of not only climate change, but also the invasion of garimpeiros\u00a0<\/em>[informal gold miners], who are destroying our trees and polluting our rivers. We\u2019re also suffering from the indifference of the Brazilian government, which does very little to protect our land and our people from invaders.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excited to come to Harvard. I\u2019d like to talk to young and old people, students and professors, men and women, and anybody who wants to talk and listen. I\u2019d like to talk to people and make them aware of the threats that climate change poses to the lives of the Yanomami and everybody.<\/p>\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>How are the Yanomami people being affected by climate change? What changes have you seen in the Amazon rainforest?<\/p>\n

KOPENAWA:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>We know that not only the Yanomami people are being affected by climate change. It\u2019s the whole planet \u2014 the cities, the countryside, and the forest that are being affected. What we\u2019ve noticed is that in the summertime, it gets very hot \u2014 hotter than years before; we see the rivers getting dry and the fish dying. In the past, it used to rain more; now rains are less frequent. And when it rains, we see the pollution covering the mountains. Our health is being affected. Our people get sicker and sicker. We\u2019re also worried about the Brazilian government, which is destroying the forest to grow soy.<\/p>\n

Climate change is harming the planet because governments all over the world lack the commitment to protect the Amazon and the world\u2019s natural reserves. Instead, they encourage companies to explore for coal, petroleum, and natural gas. We didn\u2019t used to see pollution in the Amazon. We worry that the smoke from pollution is affecting the Amazon rainforest, the lungs of the planet. We also worry about how we\u2019re going to have a dialogue with those who are destroying our resources, how we can ask them to stop the destruction.<\/p>\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>You have traveled all over the world bringing your message. What has been the response from the public?<\/p>\n

KOPENAWA:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>I have spoken to many audiences about the importance of working together to take care of the planet, and my experience is that there are certain people who don\u2019t want to listen and don\u2019t want to believe what climate change is doing to the planet. What I\u2019ve seen is that there are some people who listen, but those with power \u2014 authorities and government officials \u2014 don\u2019t want to listen. But I\u2019ll continue talking because it\u2019s important to care and preserve the beauty of the Amazon rainforest. It\u2019s already being destroyed, but we can do our part to stop the destruction. If the rainforest dies, if water dries up, poverty and disaster will hit us.<\/p>\n

We found support from Survival International<\/a>, an organization in England that works to defend indigenous peoples all over the world, and from the United Nations. They helped us with our campaign to obtain a legal decree from the Brazilian government that recognized the Yanomami as the rightful owners of our land. That was in 1992. We achieved that recognition because of the international support we had. But we need more support to make the Brazilian government enforce the law and protect us from those who are invading our land.<\/p>\n

I traveled to all those places as an ambassador of the Yanomami people. It was good that I chose this path because it brought recognition to the Yanomami. Now the world knows the Yanomami people.<\/p>\n\r\n

“The forest takes care of us; it keeps us healthy, it gives us food, fresh air, and clean water. We believe we were put in a sacred place to be protected by the forest, and that\u2019s why we want to protect it.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>What was your impression of the places you have visited?<\/p>\n\r\n

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