Hundreds attended Chico's funeral, and despite his asking for no flowers, since he knew they were going to be picked from the forest, someone left one bouquet on his coffin. Mendes gave his life for the rain forest. In essence, he was the first "Green Martyr" of the Amazon, and hopefully not the last.
It is the ruthless logging companies along with the complete ignorance of the local peasants and governments that aid in the yearly loss of the hundreds of thousands of acres of essential rainforest. In Latin America cattle ranching for export trade is the chief culprit in rain forest destruction.
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