Sara Leal*
An award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience covering environmental issues, Paulina Chamorro leads Vozes do Planeta (Voices of the Planet), a pioneering podcast on environmental issues in Brazil.
She is one of the founders of the Women’s League for the Oceans, a movement that connects 2,500 women in favor of the ocean and women’s rights, and of the multimedia project Women in Conservation.
Through a podcast, web series, reports and a film, the initiative tells the stories of women researchers who lead environmental conservation projects in Brazil.
In an interview with Um Grau e Meio, Chamorro talks about how the project came about, why she chose to focus on gender and her discoveries during the production process.
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How did the idea for the Women in Conservation initiative come about?
The first idea came from João Marcos Rosa, a photographer. He got in touch with me, we talked and I brought in the multimedia component to make a project that was a report, podcast and web series.
National Geographic agreed to publish the reports and, before we had a contract signed with the Toyota do Brasil Foundation, which was delighted with the initiative, we went to the Pantanal to take advantage of a unique opportunity to accompany two women in the field: Patrícia Mendes and Neiva Guedes.
So we packed our bags to do it the way we know how. An idea and a dream. And it was an incredible week in the field. When we got back, National Geographic had already published the two reports, the contract with Toyota had already been signed and we started the podcast and the web series, which was a great moment for people to see these women in action.
We went into the field to follow five more characters for the first season, which was then renewed for a second, third season and so on.
Why make this gender cut related to conservation research and activism?
Because from our field experiences, João and I realized that most long-term conservation projects are led by women – they were created and run by women.
We realized that communication about this was flawed. We talk about “explorers”, but why not “explorers”, if it’s women who are out in the field doing it?
We know and talk about the “gringas”, whereas in the most biodiverse country in the world, Brazil, we have our own women. How many Jane Goodalls do we have here who are saving species? And how these stories have not been told.
We joke that we want to make a sticker album so that boys and girls can look at it and say: “Boy, I want to be a Flávia Miranda”. A new society is built with new examples, and these examples have to be egalitarian.
How was the process of telling these women’s stories?
For me, in particular, it was challenging to build a story about their work, but also about their personal lives, because the reports deal a little with a private life, as far as they let me know and understand. This makes sense when they are people who use conservation as a purpose in life, not just as a job.
That was the biggest challenge and delight for me. Unraveling how their life story becomes intertwined with the need and urgency for conservation and love of nature, or how it unfolded until it became what they do today.
For João, he was also building a visual story because the project is so visually beautiful. It’s poetic and inspiring. So he also set out to think about the environment, the species and this woman and her relationship with her surroundings. Be it with her team, with the local community, with the environment itself.
What have you learned from these stories?
Apart from what I’ve learned and experienced about Brazilian biodiversity and the fact that we are just one of the species in our chain of life, I think what these women have taught me is not to throw in the towel.
Patricia Medici, one of the characters, quoted a question that crossed my mind: “Am I working for conservation or to document extinction?”. I started to ask myself that question and yes, I am working for conservation.
These women are proof that there are many more of us working for conservation than for the destruction of the planet, even though those who destroy make more noise.
I think of Zelinha [Zélia Brito] who is taking a dinghy alone to Atol das Rocas [Rio Grande do Norte] to cross, to go and count how many female lobsters there are; or that Neiva [Guedes], after that devastating fire [in the Pantanal] that burned half the macaw population, is still there, climbing up and putting the nest back in; or Patriícia [Medici] with a bunch of tapirs that have been run over, you know? They follow. So I think that’s what they taught me, to follow.
Can you hope for a part 2 of the movie?
In the first half of the year we will be releasing the project’s second documentary, Women in Amazon Conservation. The first documentary, released in 2003 by Tocha Filmes, won seven awards, three of them international.
You see a “young girl” of 15, from various corners of the country, saying: “I want to be like this woman. I loved this documentary and now I want to be that”. I get emotional every time I think about it. How much an example can change a life.
I think the documentary has managed, through art, to reach these places too. That’s why we decided to make part 2, and why the Amazon wasn’t included in part 1. We understood that there are several Amazons and that we needed to do something just about the biome.
I don’t want to say too much, but if the first film talked more about the lives of these women in the nature of Brazil, the next film will talk about the work of these women in the Amazon.
We even interviewed Minister Marina Silva, who is one of the characters. We intend to have a multiplicity of voices: river dwellers, traditional communities, indigenous leaders, researchers, archaeologists. So we have a huge diversity.
For you, what role does man play in the search for a more equal world?
I think that the role of men in this more egalitarian world is precisely in this struggle to understand their privileges and open doors and/or step back to make room for other people when necessary. That he understands and commits himself to a more equal society for everyone.
Women make up more than half of the population. It is impossible not to see that there is something wrong if these places are mostly occupied by white men.
It’s important that we have more and more men with voices to talk about these challenges in this process.