21 Facts About Chico Mendes

Chico Mendes fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and Indigenous people.

Chico Mendes was assassinated by a rancher on 22 December 1988.

Francisco "Chico" Alves Mendes Filho was born on 15 December 1944, in a rubber reserve called Seringal Bom Futuro, outside of Xapuri, a small town in the state of Acre.

Chico Mendes was the son of a second-generation rubber tapper, Francisco Mendes, and his wife, Irace.

At age 9, Chico Mendes began work as a rubber tapper alongside his father.

Chico Mendes was taught to read and write by a man named Euclides Fernando Tavora, an activist turned rubber tapper.

Chico Mendes played a central role in the creation of the National Council of Rubber Tappers in the mid-1980s.

Chico Mendes' group had strong ties with the National Campaign for the Defence and Development of the Amazon, and helped organize local Workers' Party support.

In November of that year, Adrian Cowell, an English filmmaker, filmed much of the proceedings of this meeting as part of a documentary he was making about Chico Mendes, which aired in 1990.

Chico Mendes believed that relying on rubber tapping alone was not sustainable, and that the seringueiros needed to develop more holistic, cooperative systems that used a variety of forest products, such as nuts, fruit, oil, and fibers; and that they needed to focus on building strong communities with quality education for their children.

Chico Mendes won several awards for his work, including the United Nations Environmental Program Global 500 Roll of Honor Award in 1987, and the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award in 1988.

In 1988 a man named Darly Alves da Silva bought part of a rubber reserve called Cachoeira, where relatives of Chico Mendes lived, and which was affiliated to the local Rural Workers Union in Xapuri.

In 1988, Chico Mendes launched a campaign to stop Silva from logging the area that its inhabitants wanted demarcated as an extractive reserve.

Chico Mendes delivered the warrant to the federal police, but it was never acted upon.

Chico Mendes had received death threats for years before his murder.

Chico Mendes was the 90th rural activist murdered that year in Brazil.

Chico Mendes' murder made international headlines and led to an outpouring of support for the rubber tappers' and environmental movements.

Chico Mendes' death legitimized the struggle for conservation and unionization in the Amazon for a global audience, and support for the movements poured in immediately following his death.

The strides forward made by activists in the wake of Chico Mendes' death are multifaceted, encompassing Indigenous sovereignty and alliance, the formation of extractive reserves, and government support for Chico Mendes' activism.

The years after Chico Mendes' murder saw a focus on Chico Mendes' personal advocacy projects.

The increased local support for Chico Mendes' activism saw several of Chico Mendes' co-campaigners were elected to important government offices over the next decade, which created a more receptive environment for legislation protecting the Amazon forests.