Acre’s maid to mother Amazon

Knowing the riches of the Amazon jungle from childhood, diminutive Senator Marina Silva may be uniquely suited to save Brazil’s rain fo...

Knowing the riches of the Amazon jungle from childhood, diminutive Senator Marina Silva may be uniquely suited to save Brazil’s rain forest as the country’s next Environment Minister.

Born in a rubber tapping area in the Amazon state of Acre, Silva started her career as a modest maid. Now 44, she has dedicated much of her professional life to defending the forests, stressing the need for coexistence between locals and the environment.

‘‘The State has to be prepared to accept both the criticisms and contributions by society’’ in environmental policy, Silva said. ‘‘The challenge is sustainable development.’’

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Roberto Messias Franco, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Brazil, said: ‘‘Marina Silva personifies that protection of the environment and development are not opposed, but rather that they complement each other.’’

The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest and home to up to 30 per cent of the world’s plant and animal life, covers an area larger than all of western Europe. Fires and logging destroy an area about half the size of Belgium each year.

Silva was named this week by Workers’ Party President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to head the Environment Ministry under Brazil’s first elected government from a Leftist party. Silva will join her office on January 1 with the new government.

Early in her life, Silva started working with activist Chico Mendes, whose killing in 1988 made him a martyr in the fight to save the

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Amazon. Mendes had championed the rights of Acre’s rubber tappers and defended the forests that provided their livelihood. Silva became Brazil’s youngest senator at 36 when she was elected for the Workers’ Party in 1994. (Reuters)