<
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/from-japan-to-brazil-reforesting-the-amazon-with-the-miyawaki-method/>
"When Takushi Sato left Japan for Belém, Brazil, in 1971, he never imagined
what he would go through. By 2000, as the manager of a timber company that
shipped Brazilian wood to Japan, he was tired of being extorted by officials
from IBAMA, the environmental protection agency, to get the required export
documents, he recalled.
One day, he secretly recorded a conversation in which an IBAMA officer asked
him for a bribe.
“I could not accept this extortion even knowing the risk of sinking the
company,” Sato told Mongabay by email. His company decided to take the case to
the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pará state, where Belém is located.
The Federal Police accepted the recording as evidence, but wanted to catch the
IBAMA officer red-handed. So, cooperating with the police, Sato arranged a
bribe of 1 million reais ($185,000) and a meeting with the IBAMA officer for
the payment.
Like in the movies, Sato took his briefcase with half of the bribe and flew to
Brasília, where the handover was to take place. The Federal Police sprang their
trap and arrested all of those involved in the case, including Sato, who was
later released.
The experience not only put Sato through “a lot of agony,” he said, but brought
to light his concerns for the environment. Since the 1970s, despite working for
a company that cut trees, he felt very committed to reforestation, even if only
to ensure enough tree stock for his timber production. “I have always thought
that the forest is important for our survival,” Sato said. As a personal
initiative, he made his company agree to keep areas of land for reforestation.
That was the start of the Friends of the Amazon Forest Institute (ASFLORA), the
organization he currently presides over full time."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-tropical-diseases-womens-china-miyawaki-amazon/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
