There isn’t a soul in the towns that surround the Chapada Diamantina National Park –with the highest points in Northeastern Brazil– who doesn’t know this man. Joás Brandão, 43, three marriages, four children, is a living legend whose reputation is fed, on one hand, by his crazy demeanor: this is a man who for years walked only barefoot through the bush, rarely cuts his hair, and is prone to act impulsively to defend what he believes.

On the other hand, the myth is kept alive by his near total devotion to the area’s exuberant landscape and the feats he has managed through little more than his love of nature. “We started noticing the degradation and, without much support, started going up the hills barefoot, out of sheer will, in order to fight the forest fires,” he recalls. If the Chapada Diamantina today can depend on countless groups of highly organized volunteers to monitor and fight forest fires, this is due to Joás.

Back in the 80s, when the cerrado biome was considered “bush” and the forest viewed as potential charcoal, Joás was driven to fight the flames that were destroying the landscape to make way for pastures and plantations. The national park didn’t even exist yet. He slowly gathered the other leaders, and with them founded the Palmeiras Environmental Group (GAP). Over time, the organization expanded the reach of its actions and today collects waste in places the government doesn’t service, as well as planting trees to restore degraded areas.

“Until 15 years ago, trash was left in the middle of the street in our town,” he recalls. “It was crazy. And I realized that it shouldn’t be like that: there had to be a way to change people’s  minds so this would stop happening.”

By his example, he has nourished a local fighting spirit in defense of the environment, and a feeling that change is attainable.

Below is Trip’s interview with Joás Brandão.

Trip – Tell us a little about your childhood.
Joás Brandão (JB) – I was born in Palmeiras, on Rua da Ponte. My mother and father are from other towns, almost in the rural zone, quite close to here, called Cananeias and Baraúnas. My mother’s grandmother was an Indian. She was captured “by force,” my father used to say. I lived in the rural zone for a long time, gained a lot of experience planting, harvesting, taking care of animals. And that awoke my relationship with the land and with nature. My childhood was rooted in nature, bathing in the river, catching fish with my hands. I would follow the miners. In a way, I lived in a place that revolved around mining: there were miners there from all over the world. Then came the carbonado, the black diamond, which people wanted to cut glass and to dress up the ladies of the time with rings, earrings, necklaces. So the Chapada began to suffer from the impacts of this, and we realized things couldn’t keep going this way. So we formed the groups, SOS Chapada Diamantina, and now GAP (Palmeiras Environmentalist Group), which I helped create.

Trip – How would this exploration take place?
JB – In truth, it was random, because there was no control. People did whatever they wanted, cut down forest, burn it, raise cattle inside the reserve. And all of this had an impact, and the need to create the [Chapada Diamantina National] park, a 152,000-hectare conservation area, came quickly. Then came the Instituto BDF, and we always followed their process, looking at the most viable way of preserving this, and always paying attention to the conflicts, because there are a lot of private interests. The farmers and the people who used the reserve to graze their cattle during the dry season. And the park was actually created to preserve the waters, because one of the main springs of one of Bahia’s most important rivers, the Paraguaçu River, is here. But we started this conservation movement much earlier. We started noticing the degradation and, without much support, started going up the hills barefoot, out of sheer will, in order to fight the forest fires. When the group sat down to discuss this issue, all the other problems came up. We then talked about the river, afforestation, planting trees, a series of things. We were thinking of safeguarding the future for the next generations. We understood the importance of conservation. And the fires destroy everything, from the earth’s microorganisms to the biggest tree, the biggest animal, they burn everything. But there’s also a culture of fire.

Trip – What is that?
JB –
It means that when you burn, your crop comes up better, the pasture comes up better. So they prepare their land by burning, with the cattle in mind.

Trip – So the fires are on purpose?
JB – In our region, even inside the reserve, a lot of the time the fire is on purpose. People go there and get it going. And that’s the reason: to make pasture for cattle, to help hunt, to make the animal run out of their habitat. But the fires here in the Chapada are criminal, and accidental fires are rare. That only happens when some tourist who climbed up the mountain and made a small fire didn’t take the proper precautions. Or a farmer who prepared his land, but didn’t make a proper firebreak, the wind direction, the things you need to make a controlled burn. But I think the fires should be banned. Preparation of the land should be done with organic material. They say it takes too much work but, in reality, organic material is what will ensure your land’s fertility. And when you burn, you lose that. The first fire we saw was in Serra do Candombá. We saw the smoke and everyone headed over there.

Trip – And what made you to go there?
JB – It was really our sense of conservation, not letting the fire destroy our springs, our forests. Something snapped in me and I said, “Let’s go over there.” That’s how we got started. Soon after, other people joined, and IBAMA’s [Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Resources, a federal agency] crew arrived around that time and started seeing us differently, they helped us organize, gave us fire fighting equipment. Then came the uniforms, the boots. It got so big that today we have a crew of over 150 firefighters.

Trip – Who makes up GAP?
JB – It’s a revolutionary thing in Brazil, where everyone’s a volunteer. Since 2000, we’ve had a hired crew of firefighters — 46 men today — called in by the government during what we call the critical period, which goes from August through September. That’s very gratifying, because we started from nothing. After we accomplished that, we started to look into other things. I wanted to get rid of free-roaming cattle, so we did studies on how cattle is raised in the preserve, and we managed to prove that the animals grazing in these areas were causing problems, like infecting the wild animals with ticks. It’s a complicated issue because we knew about this, but then the ranchers would clear forest to make a corral, the cattle would trample over the springs, cause erosion, silting. So it had to stop, it couldn’t go on. We did a diagnostic for all the areas that had free-roaming cattle, registered all the ranchers, and with that over 20 heads of cattle were removed from the preserve.

Trip – Was there any other external help?
JB – IBAMA came later, and after they left, ICMBio [Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade – Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity] stayed. We know it’s not enough because the preserve is very big. So there’s this period when the firefighters are hired and help with the fires. There’s an environmental education initiative that is also geared towards the problem of fires. Together with ICMBio, we have a partnership to present the proposal for garbage collection to the communities around the park, so that the trash isn’t thrown into the springs or the rivers. There is also the reforestation part: we have a mini-orchard that grows the saplings to spread around the burned areas, the river margins, the riparian forests, and in urban afforestation. This work is really done out of love. And we hope that mankind evolves so that everything related to the environment can be preserved. Because if we don’t preserve the waters, what happens to us? I like to say that “water is the earth’s blood.”

Trip – And what about civil society’s participation?
JB –
I see that a lot of people have evolved a lot. People believe today. You see old ladies going to clean up the river, the children camping. It’s very gratifying. You can’t do anything by yourself. I always say, “Nobody can do as much as everyone together.” I don’t know whose quote that is, but it’s beautiful. But we still need more partners, the responsible government agencies should be united with the environmental organizations to make this work become, in a way, a reality. We see that there’s still a great distance between the government and the NGOs. And today we are fighting to keep our independence. But raising funds is complicated. There are grants offered by the government and a few companies, but I find there’s a huge bureaucracy for you to fit into a certain project, within the parameters they want.

“GAP came about like this: a few crazy people sat down and started analyzing the environmental problems and other problems around them, like the fires, the need to restore the forest, a bunch of things. And then the ideas started to come up and things evolved. It evolved so much that we’re winning awards now [laughs]. We showed that we can change, do things differently.”

Trip – Tells us about how GAP started.
JB –
Actually, GAP came about like this: a few crazy people sat down and started analyzing the environmental problems and others problems around them, like the fires, the need to restore the forest, a bunch of things. And then the ideas started to come up and things evolved. It evolved so much that we’re winning awards now [laughs]. We showed that we can change, do things differently. It started off as this group of friends. We soon decided that each member’s backyard would have an area to produce seedlings. So we each started taking care of our yards, we would go collect seeds together, finding some sources in the woods, and we would bring it to our yards and plant a mini-orchard in each yard. Soon, we planted so much that we couldn’t fit it all in our yards, and we saw that we needed a piece of land. We were all teenagers at the time, we depended on our parents, we didn’t have any resources. But a property appeared and I said, “Let’s buy this piece of land and build our structure there.” And that’s what happened. I put together some savings I had and we bought the area.

Trip – And what, specifically, do you do?
JB – In this area there’s the landscaping part – we planted trees and then had to trim to be able to plant the smaller plants in the middle. There’s the orchard where we produce the seedlings, a variety of them: native, exotic, ornamental and fruit trees. Until 15 years ago, trash was left in the middle of the street in our town, it was crazy. And so I realized that it shouldn’t be like that, there had to be a way to change people’s minds so this would stop happening. So we took up that fight. Since we had room for it, we started bringing recyclable material here. There were some controversies: the community at first didn’t understand the ideas well and made some criticisms. But we kept at it, covered everything with organic material and started planting this small grove inside the town that people love today.

Trip – What would happen to the recyclable material after you got it?
JB – After collecting a lot of stuff, we needed a compactor. Then we did street campaigns, alerting the community to the importance of separating their garbage. Things kept going, and today we’re seen as a model for recycling in the Chapada. There are some other towns doing this work, too, and it’s important for us to spread these ideas. And today they’re already talking about a consortium of the Chapada’s towns. All of this because of our initiative. This issue with the garbage is very serious. We have to pay attention to it. What we really want is for the responsible government authorities to take a good look at it.

Trip – Was the community suspicious of your work at first?
JB –
You mean how did they receive it? It’s a cultural issue. This stigma of working with garbage comes from childhood. When you didn’t want to go to school, your mother would say to you, “Look, if you don’t go to school you’ll end up a street sweeper, a garbage man” [laughs]. So the garbage creates this repulsion because it’s gross, but once you separate it, treat it, it’s easy to handle. But a lot of people don’t care about this, they mix everything together and it becomes a mess. We’re doing something new, and people need to have a different perspective. The biggest challenge to the organization is the lack of resources, of structure. The desire to do things is there, as well as the love.

“It’s a cultural issue. This thing of working with garbage comes from childhood. When you didn’t want to go to school, your mother would say to you, ‘Look, if you don’t go to school you’ll end up a street sweeper, a garbage man’ [laughs]. So the garbage creates this repulsion because it’s gross, but once you separate it, treat it, it’s easy to handle.”

Trip – What does change mean to you?
JB –
It means being able to deal with environmental issues on a daily basis. Having this ideal, and not keeping it to yourself, making it get into the heads of others. I feel happy when someone tells me they separated their trash or planted a tree. Such actions must be widespread, people should keep them in mind and understand their importance to our survival and that of our future generations. Otherwise, there’s no point. What will we leave behind? Things have gotten to such a point, with climate change, with global warming, that we really have to fight tooth and nail. In one place it rains too much, in another it doesn’t rain at all, and you get this disharmonious thing. It’s all our fault, we’re setting fires, cutting down forest, polluting, everything revolves around capitalism, around money. I think we have to put our feet on the ground and think about quality of life. The man who says he’s civilized still has a lot to learn.

Trip – Do you consider yourself an activist?
JB –
I can’t say I consider myself one, but I always try to be aware of the concept of conservation, of loving your neighbors. If we can keep this union, we can go far. And I’m not just talking about this tiny part of the planet, I’m talking about the entire world. You see so many conflicts, so many wars because of greed.

Trip – Is there any place in the world would you like to see?
JB –
To be honest, I think this place is enough for me. Especially because this whole having money thing is something a bit alien to me [laughs]. But I’m happy like this, I’m satisfied with the little that I have. We’re in search of evolution, and I think we still have a lot to do in the spiritual sense: a human being must have lots of love, even if it’s just to plant a little seed you got from the woods, bring it here and put it in the earth for it to germinate.

A black and white photo same man from the cover photo sitting in a truck, opening with his left hand across the front of his body a curtain made of round objects that covers the left door of the automobile, and smiling at the camera with his mouth open. He is wearing a black cloth over his hair, is shirtless, and wears dark pants. The truck's exterior is covered entirely by curtains made of string with vertical rows of aluminum cans and other material hanging on them. On top of the truck's cabin is a rectangular structure covered by a dark cloth, on which are written many times the words "tenacity, attitude, peace" in Portuguese in white letters. In the back is a valley and the sky with some clouds.

Joás helped create the Palmeiras Environmentalist Group, which today collects garbage in places where the government doesn’t provide this service (Photo: Trip Transformadores)

Trip – How do people in the community see you?
JB –
Actually, people think I’m crazy [laughs]. Even my family doesn’t understand why I’m like this, since my brothers are different. My father and mother thought my ideas were insane. But I always knew I was on the right path. And when we started putting out fires, people didn’t understand. Once we brought a rattlesnake from the bush into the city to show that it was important, that it could die, that it was a part of this ecosystem. Every living being in this planet is important.

Trip – What’s this story about you diving into a river to save a deer and going missing for a day?
JB – When water comes down that river, it’s a scary thing. If you don’t have that fire in your belly, you’ll get taken away. One morning, it had rained a lot at the headwaters and a flash flood was coming. I was walking along the river and I saw a little head poking out and thought, “What is that?” I was with my oldest son, in his stroller. I locked the stroller’s wheels and dove in. When I got close, I saw it was a doe. So I went down the rapids with her, “Let’s go, you’re not dying!” She was running out of breath and I didn’t know if I could manage it. And the flood was dragging us until we got to an eddy, and it pulled her down. So I dove in and grabbed her hind legs, and started dragging her. When I got to the edge, two people walked up and I asked them to help me carry the doe, she was big and I was getting tired too. So we picked her up and took her to the street. Soon a bunch of people started gathering around to see what was happening. I’m telling the story quickly, but it took the whole day! It was a long deal. People thought I had died [laughs]. And the doe was pregnant, she was almost due.


Trip – Do you know how she ended up in the river?
JB –
She was running from two hunters. They had set their dogs after her, and she jumped into the water so she wouldn’t be killed by the dogs. It was emotional. One thing I’ll never forget is that towards the end of the day, after we had locked her in a safe place, the two dogs came after her. We came down on them pretty hard. Back then I already did the animal rights thing, campaigning for people not to hunt, not to kill animals. And when it was getting dark, the hunters showed up wanting her. I said, “No, man, she’s going free now. She’s going to her habitat.” “No, I wasted my night and whatnot,” one of them said. “Listen, you’re not laying a hand on her here. She’s protected.” They were very upset, they wanted to eat their prey. The next day, we got in the car and took her into the forest. There’s a quote by [Sathya] Sai Baba where he says, “Hands that help are holier than lips that pray.” So we have to act.