We are sailing into the heart of darkness in the Amazon – the frontier of forest destruction. Our ultimate mission is to stop illegal and destructive logging and create a network of protected areas in the Amazon that includes sustainable community based projects.
This time around we are visiting the Porto de Moz region to investigate and document the illegal logging industry and support the communities’ proposal for an extractive reserve in the area that would put 8 million hectares off limits to industrial activities.
We have two teams working on the ground. One team on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise that will navigate and monitor the main rivers and a second team on a regional river boat that is able to navigate the smaller rivers visiting communities and investigating illegal logging in the interior.
The Arctic Sunrise is a sea-going motor yacht built in 1975. It is 49 meters long with a draught of 5.8 meters making it to deep for many of the smaller rivers during the rainy season. There is a dedicated crew of 12 people on board from all over the world, but during its time in the Amazon it will carry a total of 28 passengers plus journalists from time to time.
Ironically, before Greenpeace owned the Arctic Sunrise, it was once a sealing vessel. Greenpeace also had previously confronted the ship while it was delivering equipment for the French government to build an airstrip through a penguin habitat in the Antarctic.
In 2001, on her first Amazon river tour, the Arctic Sunrise provided a platform for an unprecedented joint operation, between the federal police, government officials, and Greenpeace, that uncovered a total of 7,165 cubic metres of illegal mahogany worth almost US$7 million on the international market.
The second team is based on the Captão Dário, a regional river boat and the common method of transport for most people on Amazon rivers. The boat was built in 1994 and is 23 meters long with a draught of two meters. There are just three cabins so there will be many hammocks with mosquito nets for most of the team. There is a basic crew of four and there will be a total of 16 passengers plus guests throughout the trip.
