Christian Aid partner CPI has helped more than 7,000 Quilombola people in Brazil to exercise their right to claim collective ownership of the forest lands on which they live.
In order to even start to engage with today's subject I had to look up some facts; in case I'm not alone here's what I found out.
CPI are The Pro-Indian Commission in Brazil. CPI helps Quilombola communities to understand and negotiate the complex legal and bureaucratic processes necessary to make land claims and challenge trespassers such as deforesters.
Quilombola people are the descendents of slaves who escaped from slave plantations that existed in Brazil until abolition in 1888. They are neglected by the Brazilian Government and have to fight for the very few rights they have. They don't ask for anything other than the freedom to live their lives in peace. Their land is tiny in the scale of the Amazon Forest, just three times the size of the Lake District.
I remember being shocked by deforestation in the Amazon as a child and the sad fact is that so little has really been done to stop the decline of this amazing place. These people just want to live in the forest as they've done for generations and protect the environment they value.
Christian Aid is asking us to give 20p if you can see a tree from your window. I can see lots of trees from my window, I adore these trees and they are a good part of the reason why we chose to live here.
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