«We forget and we consider ourselves superior… But we are after all a mere part of Creation.» – We all must revise our relationship with Nature and reorient our association with consumerism!

« I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed. I see no seat for the Eagles.

We forget & we consider ourselves superior. But we are after all a mere part of Creation.

We stand somewhere between the mountain & the Ant. »

Chief Oren Lyons, Seneca Nation, in an address to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1977

«The last 500 years witnessed a ‘swift, ongoing, radical reorganization of life on Earth without geological precedent’ – the arrival of European colonialism, imperialism and the associated expansion of capitalist economic systems leading to the transferral of diseases, plants, animals, forms of land use, and administrative systems to all corners of the world.»

According to the UN, we are entering an « era of pandemics » caused by deforestation, habitat loss, intensive agriculture and wildlife trafficking.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that one of the most crucial ways to reduce carbon emissions is to shift towards a plant-based diet.

The meat industry is responsible for producing more climate pollution than all of the world’s cars, ships, trucks, and planes combined.

Consumer-fueled pressure has caused the destruction of immense areas of rainforest, rich in biodiversity, that were capable of capturing large amounts of carbon.

The EU is responsible for an important percentage of deforestation related to international trade, second only to China, and has proposed legislation to prevent imported deforestation within the EU.

Government and corporative initiatives are important but, as we’ve seen for decades, good intentions and inspiring speeches aren’t necessarily followed with action.

We as consumers can play an important role by making choices that can help prevent global forests from being totally destroyed. What we choose to eat and consume has an impact on biodiversity and indigenous peoples thousands of kilometers away from our homes.

We should ask ourselves: What do we really need to purchase? What do we really need to eat?

Purchasing locally-sourced, in season items that don’t travel 3000 kilometers helps combat deforestation globally. Put simply, if it isn’t grown or produced nearby, don’t buy it. We can limit forest and habitat destruction by boycotting products from deforestation; gold, palm oil, soy, meat and also exotic wood, diamonds, gemstones…

Our actions now will determine the future for ourselves and the rest of the living world.

About Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

I'm a French artist living near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 I studied at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, then at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for my BFA. My work for many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. Various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments took me originally to the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and subsequently to Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil. Over many years, during the winters, I studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, my interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced my artistic practice. The voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. They are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. My concern for the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest has inspired my films and installation projects. Since 2005, I've created a perfomance and film project - Fire Sculpture - to bring urgent attention to Rainforest issues. To protest against the continuing destruction, I've publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolize the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.

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