Fernando de Freitas
Members of the Northern Rivers’ growing Brazilian community marched through the main streets of Byron Bay on Sunday as fires continue to rage across the Amazon Rainforest.
The march and subsequent vigil coincided with similar events across Australia and worldwide aimed at sending a message to right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.
President Bolsonaro recently declared the Amazon open for business, leading to massive burning of vegetation to clear land for farming.
The president says the planned farmed goods will be exported to help Brazil’s economy.
Last week, Mr Bolsonaro said environmentalists at non-governmental organisations were starting fires in the Amazon in order to damage his government’s image after he cut their funding.
Greenpeace Brazil called the claim a ‘sick statement’ and a ‘smokescreen’.
Byron Bay resident Gabriela Reis organised the Byron Bay rally where several hundred people joined a march through Jonson Street to a vigil on Main Beach in Byron.
‘It was really beautiful to see people gather for a higher purpose,’ she told Bay FM reporter Fernando de Freitas, ‘to protect and to fight for nature, to fight for the indigenous, to fight for what is right’.
‘Everyone was very deeply touched and we are all together in this.’
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