WVicente Cañas, S.J. was a Spanish Christian missionary and Jesuit brother, who is credited with making the first peaceful contact with the Enawene Nawe Indian tribe in 1974. Afterwards, he lived with them for over ten years, adopting their way of life and helping them with necessary medical supplies. Due to his help, the Enawene Nawe population rebounded from a low of 97 individuals to a population of over 430. Similar to Chico Mendes and Wilson Pinheiro, he died at the hands of cattle ranchers who were destroying the Amazon Rainforest.
WBrazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and in 2005 still had the largest area of forest removed annually. Since 1970, over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. In 2012, the Amazon was approximately 5,400,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi), which is only 87% of the Amazon's original size.
WKingwood is a classic furniture wood, almost exclusively used for inlays on very fine furniture. It was the most expensive wood in general use for furniture making in the seventeenth century, at which time it was known as princes wood.
WThe Meio-norte is one of the four subregions of northeast Brazil. It is a climatic transition area located between the equatorial Amazon and semi-arid hinterlands.
WFrancisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes 15 December 1944 – 22 December 1988), was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by a rancher on 22 December 1988. The Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity, a body under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, is named in his honor.
WWilson Pinheiro was the president of the Brasiléia Rural Workers Union in the State of Acre in Brazil. He helped lead the fight against ranchers who were destroying the Amazon Rainforest. Pinheiro was committed to defense of the Amazon and was assassinated on July 21, 1980. He was a colleague of Chico Mendes, the President of the Xapuri Rural Workers Union, who similarly lost his life defending the Amazon.
WDorothy Mae Stang was an American-born, Brazilian member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She was murdered in Anapu, a city in the state of Pará, in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. Stang had been outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment and had previously received death threats from loggers and landowners. Her cause for canonization as a martyr and model of sanctity is underway within the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
WThey Killed Sister Dorothy is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Daniel Junge about Dorothy Stang, an American-born Brazilian nun who was murdered on February 12, 2005, in Anapu, a city located in the Amazon Rainforest.