Award Winning Peru Environmentalist Faces Constant Death Threats
Award Winning Peru Environmentalist Faces Constant Death Threats
When Zambrano came back from decades of military service in the Marines, he was
appalled at the extent to which illegal logging and mining had cleared most of the
rainforest he grew up in. | Photo: Victor Zambrano
Published 20 July 2016
Zambrano first tried to denounce illegal mining to authorities, but was instead offered four kilograms of gold, then threatened to death as he refused.
After fighting illegal mining in the Peruvian Amazon for years, social activist Victor Zambrano is facing constant death threats in a country widely considered to be one of the world's deadliest for environmentalists, he said in an interview issued Tuesday.
In June, Zambrano was awarded a "Leader of Conservation” by the National Geographic Society for his work on Amazon reforestation in Tambopata, a region that scientists consider a world epicenter of biodiversity.
Zambrano founded the “Kerenda Homet” refuge, named one of the top four private conservation areas in the region by former Environment Minister Antonio Brack in 2010.
The refuge receives tourists who wish to travel sustainably, as well as groups of children from surrounding schools—a third of them from mining families—in a bid to raise awareness about biodiversity.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Award-Winning-Peru-Environmentalist-Faces-Constant-Death-Threats-20160720-0029.html
