This Sunday (17) is celebrated Forest Protection Day. Like other commemorative dates, it is used to raise awareness of Brazil’s environmental problems — it is even part of the Ministry of the Environment’s calendar.
The 17th of July, however, is not only remembered for this. In it, a very Brazilian figure is also properly highlighted: Curupira, “lord of animals, protector of trees”, as pointed out by Câmara Cascudo (1898-1986) in the “Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro”.
The folkloric being of small size (“curu” and “pira” bring the idea of a “boy’s body”), with red hair and upside-down feet, has even been sworn in in the state of São Paulo for its functions. On September 11, 1970, the then governor of the state, Roberto Costa de Abreu Sodré (1917-1999), enacted a law in which the Curupira became “the state symbol of the guardian and protector of forests and the animals that live in them”. .
And, more than ever, the defense of forests is essential for Brazil — and for the world. The country still has vast areas of forest, but they are under threat.
The most visible example, even for its magnificent size, is the Amazon. After years of devastation with downward trends and an apparent greater control of criminal activities, deforestation in the largest and most biodiverse rainforest returned to present growth trends from 2012. But the situation has become more critical in recent years.
The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government was accompanied by an explosion in forest clearing, with annual numbers that already exceed ten thousand square kilometers of deforestation.
The problem, however, does not reside only in the Amazon. Other important biomes in the country also suffer from destruction.
In recent years, the Pantanal, the world’s largest floodplain, has been seen in flames; the cerrado, half the size of the Amazon and targeted by agribusiness, has high rates of deforestation every year; even the Atlantic Forest, which is already the most devastated biome in the country, has registered historical increases in vegetation loss.
And why is this worrying?
The most direct answer is: survival. Societies depend on the ecosystem services (read air and water, for example) that forests bring us.
But in a world in a climate crisis, the story goes even further. In Brazil, deforestation is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. Not protecting or cutting down forests means worsening climate change, as trees on the ground translate into carbon dioxide emissions, which, in turn, result in higher degrees of global thermometers.
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