Amazon rainforest’s “The Decade of Destruction”: José Lutzenberger and the Agrarian Counter-reform in Rondônia (1980’s)
Abstract
The present paper examines the role environmentalist José Lutzenberger played against POLONOROESTE, the colonization program implemented in the 1980’s in Rondônia, financed partially by the World Bank. Lutzenberger denounced the social and environmental problems of the program by means of his participation in the documentary series The Decade of Destruction, directed by Adrian Cowell and Vicente Rios. This paper discusses the criticism present in the films, whose showings in Europe, Brazil, Canada, and Japan led to Lutzenberger being invited to testify in the United States congress, in Washington D.C. This chain of events fostered a change of attitude from the World Bank, bringing Lutzenberger to international prominence and helping promote the Amazon rainforest as a world reaching problematic.
Keywords: José Lutzenberger, agrarian counter-reform in Rondônia, environment and military dictatorship.
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