FRANCE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo people in northern Brazil meets with politicians in France to discuss the future of the Amazonian rainforest ahead of the World Cup

Record ID: 695961

  • Title: FRANCE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo people in northern Brazil meets with politicians in France to discuss the future of the Amazonian rainforest ahead of the World Cup
  • Date: 3rd June 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JUNE 3, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOTEL DE LASSAY VARIOUS OF CHIEF RAONI METUKTIRE OF THE KAYAPO PEOPLE ARRIVING WITH DELEGATION RAONI WALKING UP STEPS TO GREET FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SPEAKER CLAUDE BARTOLONE / RAONI AND BARTOLONE SHAKING HANDS BARTOLONE AND RAONI BARTOLONE AND RAONI SHAKING HANDS / POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS / ENTERING BUILDING / PHOTOGR
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA569NC410DKKGB739L65GJLRIB
  • Story Text: Brazilian tribe chief Raoni Metuktire met French politicians on Tuesday (June 3) to call on the international community to act over deforestation in Brazil.
    The head of the Kayopo people in the Amazon was greeted by the speaker of France's National Assembly Claude Bartolone in Paris as part of a tour before the World Cup begins later in June.
    As the world's attention turns towards Brazil for the football event, Raoni told reporters he wanted to highlight the plight of the forest in the Amazon.

    "Deforestation continues, even during the (World) Cup, that is not stopping, and that is the reason behind my concern and I have come here to talk, to talk to you and to pass on to you my concerns because I am very, very worried about the future of my grandchildren, of all the generations," he said in his native language Kayapo.
    Raoni gained worldwide attention through rock star and environmental activist Sting who founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1989 after meeting a group of Brazilian Indians in the Amazon. The tribe chief previously spoke out against the construction of the controversial Belo Monte dam in 2009, an 11,000-megawatt project in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
    Speaking in his native language, Raoni told reporters he respected the international football tournament occurring in his country.

    "I respect the World Cup because it's a white man's affair and like us we have celebrations which belong to my culture so I respect the culture of the white man and the (World) Cup which is happening this year in Brazil," he said.
    Brazilian government figures released in November 2013 showed deforestation in the Amazon increased by nearly a third over the past year.
    Satellite data for the 12 months through the end of July 2013 showed that deforestation in the region climbed by 28 percent compared with a year earlier. Although scattered, the total land cleared during the period amounted to 2,256 square miles (5,843 square km), an area almost the size of the U.S. state of Delaware.
    The figure, boosted partly by expanding farms and a rush for land around big infrastructure projects, is the second-lowest annual tally since Brazil's space agency began tracking deforestation. But it fulfilled predictions by scientists and environmentalists, based on preliminary figures compiled through the year, that destruction was on the rise again.
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