Experienced in reporting on the northern region of the country and participating in highly relevant coverage, such as the murder of Chico Mendes, journalist Fernando Gabeira, 81, made numerous trips through the Amazon. But the most recent, for a documentary series on the GloboNews channel, has a farewell tone.
“Not only because of my age, but because the Amazon, as we know it, is on the verge of disappearing”, says Gabeira, in the first episode of the series, which begins on BR-163, with the vision of soy plantations around. “The Amazon with its very rich forests, with its environmental services, is very close to reaching a point of non-reversible destruction.”
The journalist conducts the special “Pelas Estradas do Brasil – Amazônia”, with two episodes. The first aired on the 12th and is available online for Globoplay service subscribers. The last one will be broadcast next Sunday (19), at 21:30.
Gabeira’s programs are the first in a package of documentaries on the channel’s environment. Then come the journalists Míriam Leitão, who also went to the Amazon, and André Trigueiro, who will address conservation initiatives.
The so-called “point of no return” to which Gabeira refers has been alerted by researchers for some time. Upon reaching a certain level of destruction —perhaps not far from the current one—, the forest will undergo a savannization process, in which its biodiversity and ecosystem services will be lost.
THE Sheet Gabeira recalls that, currently, the ecosystem services of the forest are no longer the same. He cites the fact that 8 of the 10 cities that emit the most greenhouse gases in the country are in the Amazon and that parts of the forest —thanks to deforestation and degradation— already emit more than they absorb CO.twogas responsible for the climate crisis.
Considering the current politically relevant year, it is important that the Amazon enters the political agenda, says the journalist. “The idea was to make people, voters, have a vision of what the Amazon is and what needs to change there”, he says.
Gabeira says he is impressed by the fact that environmental crime in the Amazon, such as mining, is currently more integrated with other illicit acts, such as drug trafficking. “What is evident to all of us is that the state is not present.”
Leitão’s impression is similar. “You feel a much greater ease with crime. I passed posters, on the road, commemorating being able to arm yourself. It has a much more tense, heavier atmosphere”, he told the Sheet.
At the beginning of the month, British reporter Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira disappeared in the Vale do Javari region (AM). There are suspicions that the case is linked to illegal fishing and hunting – according to the Federal Police, a fisherman confessed to having participated in the murder of the two.
Deforestation was another point that marked Leitão and his reporting team. “There are times when you travel, travel and travel and say: ‘I am not in the Amazon, this is not the Amazon’. Because there is no forest”, says the journalist.
The documentary made by Leitão, called “Amazônia na Encruzilhada”, will air on July 24th. The reporter spent the sole of her boot —almost literally—in the Pará cities of Belém, Marabá and São Félix do Xingu (the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the country and home to the largest Brazilian cattle herd).
While the problems in the forest became clear to journalists, the resistance also stood out. The journalist cites the reaction of women fruit pulp producers against large farmers, who, with the use of pesticides, end up harming the work of neighboring properties.
GloboNews’ environmental package of special reports is completed with a production by André Trigueiro, which should air in August, still without a set date.
Filming, scheduled to start on the 20th of this month, should address soil degradation, pointing out solutions such as regenerative agriculture and other ideas related to livestock. For this, the journalist must visit farms in the Midwest and Southeast. Trigueiro will also address the water crisis and see how the recovery of springs is a possible solution.
