La Mancha, the ecosystem to which Ad\u00e1n dedicated his life, and the neighbouring lagoon complex of El Llano, cover 1,414 hectares of wetlands protected by the Ramsar<\/a> international treaty. Due to its ecological importance, the La Mancha Coastal Research Centre (Cicolma) of the Institute of Ecology (Inecol) set up there. Vez collaborated with the Centre through the cooperative La Mancha in Movement, which he helped found two decades ago.<\/p>\n From that cooperative, Vez managed resources for mangrove conservation, organised environmental education workshops in the area’s schools and promoted ecotourism as a sustainable economic activity. He was also an enthusiastic promoter of the La Mancha Bird Festival, which attracts hundreds of tourists every year to observe the shorebirds and waterfowl that come to this great bottleneck and enormously wide passage on birds\u2019 migration route. \u201cIt is the most important bird of prey corridor in the world!\u201d Vez used to boast.<\/p>\n It is not the only attack in the last month in Mexico. On March 23, two gunmen killed<\/a> attorney Isaac Medardo Herrera Avil\u00e9s at his home in Jiutepec, in the state of Morelos.<\/p>\n Herrera, a former ejido<\/em> (communal) leader who later became an attorney, litigated on various issues of environmental interest, as Mongabay Latam<\/em> wrote<\/a>. One of them was the defence of the Los Venados<\/em> property, a 56,000 square metre forest in the middle of Jiutepec, where the then municipal president authorised a project for the construction of 400 homes and the felling of more than half its 3,000 trees.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n On March 31, Zezico Rodrigues Guajajara was murdered. He was a respected leader of the Guajajara people who lived in the indigenous territory of Ararib\u00f3ia in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Maranh\u00e3o.<\/p>\n Zezico was returning to his village of Zutiwa on a motorcycle when unknown assailants armed with a shotgun attacked him, the Amaz\u00f4nia Real website reported<\/a>. Although there is no further information on the perpetrators, suspicions fall on illegal loggers who had previously threatened him, according to<\/a> the NGO Amazon Watch, which operates in the region.<\/p>\n Zezico, who is the fifth indigenous Guajajara killed in five months and had recently been elected coordinator of the Commission of Indigenous Chiefs and Leaders of the Indigenous Territory of Ararib\u00f3ia (Cocalitia), was one of the historic promoters<\/a> of the Guardians of the Forest, a group of 120 indigenous volunteers who protect the territory from illegal logging and trade. He is also known for protecting the Aw\u00e1-guaj\u00e1 people, who live in voluntary isolation within the same Ararib\u00f3ia territory.<\/p>\n 49<\/p>\n Data from the Pastoral Land Commission indicates that Maranh\u00e3o state leads national rankings<\/a> in terms of rural conflicts, with 2,539 cases between 1990 and 2018. As for the Guajajara, 49 have been killed in Maranh\u00e3o since 2000. None of these crimes has been solved.<\/p>\n Things are equally complex in Colombia. On March 23, Omar and Ernesto Guasiruma Nacabera, two Ember\u00e1 indigenous people from the community of Buenavista in the department of Valle del Cauca, were murdered. That night, unknown assailants arrived at their home in rural Bolivar municipality and invited them to a supposedly urgent meeting, Mongabay Latam <\/em>reported. They were shot 20 metres from the door and the assailants fled, leaving two other family members seriously injured.<\/p>\n Scientists warn us that deforestation, industrial agriculture, the illegal wildlife trade, climate change and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Since 2013, another indigenous people, the Ember\u00e1 of the Pichicora Chicu\u00e9 Punto Alegre-Rio Chicu\u00e9 Reserve on the Colombian Pacific coast, have been caught<\/a> in the crossfire between two armed groups. One of these, guerrilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN), theoretically decreed a ceasefire throughout April, but its armed confrontation with the Gaitanist Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC) has trapped indigenous people living in the municipality of Bojay\u00e1, Choc\u00f3 department. The Ember\u00e1 reported 10 grenade explosions but are prevented from taking refuge in other towns.<\/p>\n That attacks continue in the midst of the spread of COVID-19 serves to further underscore the role that environmental degradation may have played in its transmission and emphasises the importance of environmental defenders.<\/p>\n Though there is still much unknown about how this new coronavirus became a pandemic and generated an equally widespread economic recession, there are several indications that the accelerated loss of ecosystems is an overwhelming factor.<\/p>\n Many scientists are pointing to a link between habitat transformation and biodiversity loss, caused by road construction, mining or the expansion of the agricultural frontier to produce food. They are note the proliferation of species that can spread zoonotic viruses to humans.<\/p>\n \u201cScientists warn us that deforestation, industrial agriculture, the illegal wildlife trade, climate change and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics, raising the probability of major human rights violations,\u201d David R. Boyd, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Environment and a specialist in natural resource management, cautioned<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n Evidence suggests that biodiversity loss often increases the transmission of pathogens and that reducing the prevalence of infectious diseases is a service that more biodiverse ecosystems provide, according to a study published<\/a> in 2010 in the journal Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n Our growing global appetite will stoke populations of the very species best designed to kill us with new viruses<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cMore broadly, biodiversity itself seems to protect organisms, including humans, from transmission of infectious diseases in many cases. Preserving biodiversity in these cases, and perhaps generally, may reduce the incidence of established pathogens,\u201d concluded<\/a> the team led by Felicia Keesing, a Bard College ecologist specialising in infectious diseases.<\/p>\n This loss of biodiversity is strongly linked to deforestation and the destruction of ecosystems to expand herds of cattle or industrial crops like soybeans or oil palms, which are some of the raw materials that Latin American countries have oriented their exports towards.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n For example, in Brazil\u2019s northern region, which encompasses the Amazon states, numbers of cattle recorded in a national census grew by 22% in a decade, compared to a 4% average for the rest of the country, according to an investigation<\/a> by journalist Gustavo Faleiros for Infoamazonia<\/em> and Di\u00e1logo Chino.<\/em><\/p>\n Part of this rapid growth in livestock farming is explained by the sector becoming a powerful driver of deforestation. A report<\/a> by the watchdog Trase, a consortium of researchers studying the environmental impact of commodities, showed that beef exports generate 65,000 to 75,000 hectares of deforestation per year in Brazil. Of that total, 22,000 hectares were attributed<\/a> to exports to China, the leading buyer of Brazilian meat.<\/p>\n 22%<\/p>\n The change in land use and fragmentation of ecosystems, caused by the replacement of forests and other vegetation with extensive crops, creates opportunities for the transmission of malaria and other diseases caused by zoonotic parasites, another study from 2000 <\/a>by four researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health found<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur growing global appetite will stoke populations of the very species best designed to kill us with new viruses,\u201d Georgina Gustin pointedly stated in a report<\/a> on the InsideClimate News <\/em>website.<\/p>\n In one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, where biodiversity loss is as great a challenge as the effects of climate change, defenders of the environment are an invaluable asset.<\/p>\n They are commonly seen by some sectors as opponents of economic development, when in reality these leaders and communities are protecting ecosystems that already provide societies with fundamental services, from water provision to air quality. The possible prevention of transmission of zoonotic viruses could be added to that list, according to Keesing.<\/p>\n Environmental defenders are often better guardians of this collective heritage than governments themselves, the military or the police.<\/p>\n![\"Isaac](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Isaac-3-1-scaled.jpg\")
Indigenous people under siege<\/h2>\n
\nindigenous Guajajara have been killed in the Amazonian state of Maranh\u00e3o since 2000
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\nCOVID-19 highlights importance of environmental defenders<\/h2>\n
![\"cattle](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Deforestacion-Brasil.jpg\")
\nthe growth of the cattle herd in northern Brazil in the past 10 years
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n