A pioneering biologist named a "hero for the planet" by Time magazine in 2000 for his work to save the Amazon rainforest has been jailed in Brazil, amid claims that he has been framed.
Marc van Roosmalen, 60, of Dutch background, was jailed last week in Manaus, Amazonas state capital, accused of stealing 28 monkeys found in his home.
Supporters say van Roosmalen is the victim of a witch-hunt because of his stance against illegal loggers. They say he ran an animal hospital and that he has been framed because of his fight to defend the world's largest rainforest from cattle ranchers and soy companies.
"It's a vendetta," said John Chalmers, an English businessman who runs a jungle expedition company in Manaus and has worked with the scientist for four years, accompanying him on fact-finding missions in the jungle.
"The only way to protect the Amazon is to make people aware of all these species. Marco tried to preserve the species and their natural habitat. This does not suit politicians who own large tracts of land full of logs that they want to sell," Chalmers said.
Chalmers said he believed local politicians had jumped on the "bio-piracy bandwagon", stirring xenophobic fears that the scientist was stealing wildlife from the Amazon. "For 95 percent of the population here the biggest assets are timber and land. They want to bulldoze the forest at every possible opportunity. Anything Marco does is contrary to their interests," he said.
Marc van Roosmalen first came to Brazil in the late 1980s, working in Manaus for the Brazilian government. He discovered several unknown species of primate and received numerous awards, including the Order of the Golden Ark from Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, in 1997. In 2000 he traveled to San Francisco to receive Time magazine's Heroes for the Planet environmental award. He also worked for the Institute of Amazonian Research, a scientific research unit in Manaus.
In 1997 the influential Brazil-ian magazine Veja wrote a special report on van Roosmalen, known by colleagues in the Amazon simply as "Mr Marco". "He loves to travel through the rivers and forests of the Amazon," the report said. "He doesn't use repellent [and he] hangs his hammock in any tree he comes across."
"The work of researchers like Roosmalen ... isn't just about the pleasure of giving their names to newly discovered animals," the report said.
"The biggest role is to try to prevent animals and plants from disappearing before they are known scientifically," it concluded.
Yesterday supporters said van Roosmalen planned to appeal but they now fear for his life. "He was almost crying," said Chalmers, who visited the biologist in Manaus' public jail this week.
"He's likely to be attacked there because he looks like a foreigner," he said; van Roosmalen had told him that there was somebody killed inside the prison every night.
According to the website of the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper in Rotterdam, the Dutch government could do nothing to help van Roosmalen since he had taken Brazilian nationality in 1996.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS