They may be simple little images of local wildlife from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest but for those who sell them -- and for the tourists who buy them -- they’re more than just a trinket. These little figurines are helping feed hundreds of families -- while giving visitors an endearing memory of the Amazon rainforest.
Miguel Rocha da Silva was brought up in the Amazon, the son of a rubber tapper, and the only one of his 19 brothers and sisters to receive an education. Thirty years ago, he had an idea. He found out that the Amazon was strewn with thrown-away wood - cast off by loggers.
He decided to use this raw material to make art. His timing was perfect. It coincided with the Brazilian government banning hunting in the Amazon in the early 1990s - stripping away a traditional source of income for thousands of people.
Instead he taught those same people to make little images of frogs and local wildlife, to be sold to visiting tourists. The Almerinda Malaquias Foundation he established now raises $120,000 a year, feeding hundreds of families of the workers, and giving visitors a long lasting memory of the forest too.
CGTN’s Stephen Gibbs has the story.
An idyllic spot near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where a mountain river meets the sea has long been loved for its wildlife and natural beauty. But a recent move by a local company to allegedly “dam up” the Los Horcones river sparked outrage and activism that went far beyond the town.
Local reside...
The world’s rivers are some of the most vital natural resources, sustaining life wherever they flow. But in Mexico, one water body is causing real problems, making environmental concerns grow over industrial and urban development.
It’s a question that is becoming increasingly urgent as concern grows that the world’s largest original forest – a key defense against global warming – risks being destroyed by farming, logging and climate change.
One solution may lie partly in private hands.
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In 1990, the government ...
