Maria Cristina Oliveira, 62, usually wakes up early. She punctually at 6:30 am she has breakfast while listening to the news through the battery-powered radio, the only device that can pick up a signal in the region. “Here I am isolated. No cell phone signal, TV and much less internet.”
Cristina, or simply Cris, lives alone on the peak of a mountain, in the district of Quatinga, 43 km from the center of Mogi das Cruzes, in Greater São Paulo. Surrounded by a dense forest, the area is part of the 65% of the Atlantic Forest territory that makes up the municipality.
“I’ve been here for ten years and I wouldn’t trade this peace for anything. I’ve seen animals of all kinds here. Red, blue and green birds. The water I drink comes straight from my well. I’m privileged to be able to contemplate this wealth”, reports.
Despite the tranquility of the place, Cris has been in constant struggle since she moved there. In recent years, the activist has made more than 20 police reports against illegal subdivisions, illegal hunters, deforestation and irregular eucalyptus plantations in the region.
“The crimes we see here are just a fraction of what is happening all over Brazil. We need to fight the herd that they let pass,” he says. “Passar a boiada” was the expression used by former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, with the aim of making legislation against environmental crimes more flexible.
One of the complaints that the activist made to the Public Ministry of Mogi das Cruzes, in May 2018, resulted in a joint operation between the environmental police and the Forest Foundation in Vila Taquarussu. At the time, irregular eucalyptus plantations were embargoed and machinery was also seized.
Cris says she has already suffered reprisals for the allegations. All four tires on her truck were slashed on one occasion in 2016. In addition, her house has already been robbed shortly after a claim. For the activist, these crimes would be messages for her to suspend her actions.
“I’m like a ‘guardian of the forest’. I have this mission to take care of nature. That’s why I’m not afraid,” she says.
Even without an internet connection where she lives, Cris makes use of social networks to denounce environmental crimes in the region. At least once a week, she goes downtown to shop and live, denouncing the infractions caught by her.
“I am the grandmother of these singers who do lives nowadays”, she jokes about the movement that gained strength during social isolation. “I started well before the pandemic, I even started reporting on Orkut”, she highlights.
Your site is part of a 250-hectare property of forest located between Mogi das Cruzes, Santo André and Cubatão, known as Chácaras Reunidas Santo Antônio. The area is equivalent to 350 football fields.
Cris fell in love with the calm of the place and left her job and her old house in the Mooca neighborhood, in São Paulo, to live there — in addition to her own marriage. “My ex-husband said: ‘Either me or the place’. So I told him: ‘I’ll be there. If you need to know where to find me,'” she says.
In March 2014, Cris made a request for recognition of RPPN (Private Natural Heritage Reserve) to Fundação Florestal to make her property a private conservation unit, as, thus, the preservation of the place would be her responsibility. However, the activist has not yet won the title.
“I decided to take care of nature myself, because it seems to me that the authorities are not interested in preserving the environment”, he says.
Simple of Everything
Before moving to Mogi das Cruzes, Cris worked in a school supply company. On the farm, however, to earn an income and maintain himself in the middle of the forest, he created a campsite, called Simplão de Tudo.
The place is a space for people who want to camp and have contact with the rich biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest. To stay overnight, you need to make a reservation and bring your own tent. The space is also open for bands, soirees, exhibitions and artistic manifestations.
“Here we are also in favor of diversity and social inclusion, including 70% of the visitors are from the LGBTQIA+ community”, he says.
To get to Cris’ house, you have to go through an ecotourism route known as Caminho do Sal. The route that connects Mogi das Cruzes to Vila de Paranapiacaba, in Santo André, is frequented by hikers, mountain bikers and drivers heading towards Paranapiacaba.
To the Mural Agency, Serra do Mar State Park – Itutinga Pilões Center stated that most of the areas mentioned in Cris’ complaints are outside the park’s limits, thus being the responsibility of the municipality and the environmental police.
The Municipality of Mogi das Cruzes stated that the places mentioned by the activist are patrolled by the environmental police group. According to the administration, agents are attentive to complaints from the community.
