The Amazon rain forest has never been more at risk. Every year, another 17,000 km disappears to make way for cattle ranches or falls prey to loggers’ saws. But it’s not just the environment that suffers when the forests are cleared. The traditional way of life for more than 20 million people is also threatened. But now, the women of the Amazon are fighting back. In thousands of communities across the region, they’re uniting to save their land. And in taking on the loggers, they’re challenging their male dominated society.

Dona Maria’s husband smokes his cigar glumly as his wife goes out yet again. To his disgust, she has joined a local woman’s group to campaign for the rainforest’s preservation. “I used to have to jump through hoops to go. He didn’t like it because it interfered with the housework,” she said. But when he threatened to lock her out of the house if she went, she stopped seeking his permission. “I said I would break the door down because I have the right to be in this house,” she recalls. Now he doesn’t try and stop her going. “I don’t tell her what to do any more. It’s up to her,” he says in resignation.“When we decided to sell wood we thought our lives would improve. But we lost out in the end,” laments Vanjoca. “We didn’t think of the forest’s value and now it’s all gone.” Fifteen years ago, the men in his village decided to sell their communal forest land to loggers. But the little money they received quickly ran out, leaving them with nothing. “It’s all gone. There is no more game and the fish are gone because trees no longer drop fruit into the river.” Gloria, agrees. “When the forest goes, everything goes with it.” The villagers’ experiences are backed up by research by the American ethnobotanist Dr Patricia Shanley. She spent six years analysing the real value of standing forests. “The results showed that these non-timber products have a very high value,” she explains. Her data is now being used to educate Amazon communities about the importance of the forest for local economies. “When we bring information about the economic value of the standing forest, there’s no way they’ll sell a tree for $2 when the yearly value of its fruit is $60.” To the men’s surprise, Shamley decided to target women as a means of educating the community. “We found that bringing them into the discussion with men brought a voice of caution and thrift. They were thinking long term,” she explains. But as women become more involved in preserving the Amazon, they’re also challenging their traditional male dominated society. “Since we started working with the community we’ve discovered that we are people too. We began to value ourselves as people,” explains Selma. Vanjoca’s wife, Dona Ana agrees. “In the past, if the husband didn’t ask for our opinions, we would sit quietly on the side. Now, no. Women have to be in the middle!” All across the Amazon, women’s participation in this powerful populist movement is growing. In the town of Nova Timboteua, they’ve fearlessly taken on the ranchers who dominated the farmers unions and used it to crush the farmers. Previously, women were not allowed to vote in the union so they risked their lives and occupied the union headquarters for ten days until they were given the right to vote. “They kill 4 or 5 but 30, 40, 200 keep on fighting” states Dona Ara.
As one campaigner states: “For 500 years we have been left out of history and now we are here to say that the next 500 years will be different! Women will be respected.”