Faces of the Amazon

MANAUS, Brazil - This might come as a shock, but I am going to say it anyway: The story of the Brazilian Amazon is not one of giant trees, rainforests, rivers, exotic reptiles, carbon emissions, or deforestation.

 

The story of the Amazon in Brazil is one of people.

 

Often lost in glossy picture books about the Amazon, is the fact that 21 million people in Brazil alone live in the Amazon territory. To be exact 20,998,731 according to the latest census.

 

They live in big cities like Manaus (population 1.7 million) and Belem (population 1.4 million). They live in small, isolated riverbank villages made up of a few people with no cell phone service. Places like Boa Frente (population 94). They are ranchers, indigenous people, shop owners, drivers, cooks, fishermen, bankers and everything in between.

 

I have been fortunate to visit various parts of the Amazon numerous times and I can’t remember one specific tree. But I can remember the faces of the people.

 

These faces are – in my mind - the story of the Brazilian Amazon.

 

So I want to introduce you to some of them.

 

Everyday of the Copenhagen climate change conference (starting Monday, Dec 7 and going until Friday, December 18) I am going to post to this blog a picture I have taken of a person I have come in contact with on my most recent reporting trip to the Amazon the past 2 weeks. The photo will accompany a brief bio of the person and their thoughts – in their own words – about their daily life, struggles, aspirations and what it’s like to live in the Amazon region of Brazil. In all, there will be 12 profiles – one per day. I am calling them Faces of the Amazon.

 

Each biography should not take you more than 5 minutes to read. They don’t claim to be the stuff of hard-hitting investigative journalism.

 

The ‘faces’ you will meet are average, everyday people I have simply bumped into in one way or another over the course of my reporting on this trip. Not one is a formal interview I set up in advance. None are politicians or publicity seekers with an agenda.

 

They are, however, a diverse group: A 13 year old girl who lives in a forest reserve; a teen mother from a small town; an Amazon NGO worker; an elderly man; a fisherman struggling through a drought; a pilot.

 

They have one thing in common: In one way or another they all call ‘the Amazon’ home.

 

If you choose to read them, my hope is that the next time you see on the news something related to “the Amazon” maybe one of their faces will come to mind. Because, in the end, the story of the Brazilian Amazon is about them.

 

Look for the first installment of 'Faces of the Amazon' on the Al Jazeera Americas blog on Monday.