Tom Lovejoy

Barbara Bramble

"There were things that came together after his death that probably couldn’t have come together if he was still alive. Because they’d still be fighting over whether the extractive reserves should be established or not. After he was killed there was no question. So now it’s quite clear that who saves forests are the people in the forest."

Adrian Cowell

"[Chico Mendes] would collect thirty or forty rubbertapper men, women, and they would go unarmed to where people were cutting down the forest - and they were usually all armed. [The rubbertappers] would surround the trees that people wanted to cut down and try to resist them nonviolently, and explain to them what a disaster it was - not only for them to cut down the forest, but it cut down the livelihood of everyone."

Adrian Cowell

"The theme that runs through all these movements is the loss of the commons. That’s what people are fighting for, is the right of subsistence and the right of access to clean water, to food, to forests. You know, the right to live."