Like most climate heroes, Francy Baniwa does not consider herself anything of the sort. A writer and activist of the Baniwa people from the Alto Rio Negro Indigenous territory in the Brazilian Amazon, she is part of a community of 25,000 people which protects an area of rainforest the size of Scotland.
Thanks to the presence and nature-immersed cultures of these traditional forest residents, this enormous area of vegetation and rivers in the state of Amazonas is more resistant than public land to invasions by ranchers, loggers, miners and other extractive industries. This has global benefits of carbon sequestration, regional benefits for rainfall generation and cooling, and local benefits for the abundant wildlife, such as jaguars, anteaters and anacondas that provide the inspiration for Francy’s books.
