Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado attends this week at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, COP26, to ask for more trees to be planted in the world, and in the case of the Amazon to simply demand compliance with the law.
“The solution for the Amazon is not very complicated. A quarter of the lands are indigenous, it is in the Constitution. Another quarter are conservation units, national parks, also protected by the Constitution,” he explained to AFP by telephone, before traveling on Thursday. fair (4) to the Scottish city.
“The other half of the Amazon is public land. But half of these lands are flooded six months a year”, he completes.
“A flooded land is not usable. And what is left has already been destroyed. So the great pressure is turned against indigenous lands, in the parks,” he says.
“If we apply the law in a way that does not allow entry to indigenous lands, that does not enter conservation units, we would have the Amazon practically protected”, he summarizes.
“Global support for the judicial apparatus, this could save the Amazon”, he adds.
Never so threatened, never so organized
A world-renowned photographer, Salgado has used his prestige for several decades to help the cause of the environment.
His latest photographic project, about the Amazon, has already been admired in Paris, London and will soon reach several Brazilian cities.
Salgado lived, listened to and photographed the region’s Indians, their landscapes and animals, without the intention of becoming their spokesperson.
“They are living through a very difficult time, but one thing must be said: the Indians were never so threatened, but they were never so organized.”
In Glasgow, indigenous organizations from the Amazon basin are present both inside and outside COP26.
Salgado will meet with Brazilian businessmen who are involved in the defense of nature. And then he will speak about what is happening in the forest at an event within the UN conference.
And he will talk about what has been his great battle since he inherited a family farm in the state of Minas Gerais, more than 30 years ago: planting thousands of trees to regenerate regions exploited for agricultural purposes.
“How many peasant organizations are at COP26? Almost none,” says Salgado, 77, who divides his time between the farm, Paris and the places he visits to continue shooting.
After founding the NGO Instituto Terra, he set himself the goal of planting one million trees. In and out of your farm.
“Peasants are not enemies, they are not reactionary people. They are isolated people, who do not have the necessary training. But if you provide training, they become allies,” he explains.
Salgado says he has the collaboration of 3,000 landowners in Brazil, who were convinced, in decades of effort, to plant trees on their land, to participate in the regeneration effort.
He believes this could be done in European countries. “We have to do with the farmers, otherwise we won’t be able to,” he says.
And, at the same time, he intends to continue photographing the beauty and brutality of the contemporary world, in black and white.
“When I take the photos, I see them in black and white. This allows me to focus on the personality of people, the landscapes. It’s not that I don’t love the colors, it’s just that I don’t know how to do it,” he admits.
For his long career in photography, started almost 50 years ago, Sebastião Salgado has received some of the most important awards in the world, such as the Prince of Asturias and the centenary medal from the Royal Photographic Society.
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