British farmers are fed up to the back teeth of forever getting it in the neck from armchair townie luvvies of the shrill Packham and Monbiot variety who bang on about the desperate need for overnight Net Zero and other policies with unintended consequences, claiming that British farms are massive polluters. They try to force rewilding on the UK which will achieve nothing for global temperatures – rewilding is subsuming farms and putting unbearable pressure on farm communities and other land managers. The majority in British urban areas, outnumbering the countryside by 5 to 1 lap up their pronouncements because they do not know any better when they should be asking pertinent questions like, “why not buy a chunk of land the size of Britain in South America or Africa and rewild that?” or “have you asked the Indians or the Chinese to rewild?” So, here, CSM’s Alexia James interviews Nefertith Esteves, Director of Amazonia Verde (Amazon Green), a charitable project that aims to replace trees in deforested areas where mining or logging has occurred, thus far planting hundreds of thousands of seedlings.

AJ: Nefertith, thanks so much for agreeing to take part in this interview.

NE: My pleasure, Alexia. I am more than happy to be involved.

AJ: Your family has a background in mining and minerals. Brazil is a massive producer of gold, diamonds, emeralds, silver, timber and other commodities which over the years have led to deforestation from mining and logging. Where you are based in Goiania and nearby in Bahia state there have been some major deforestations.

NE: Yes, that is correct but that is not to say that there is not an effort by Brazilians, both state actors and private bodies, to replace lost forest. The organisation that I founded, Amazonia Verde, is one of the entities at the forefront of tree replacement based on the science on the ground and arborists who know what species to plant and where and in what number.

AJ: That is all very impressive but what assistance do you get from the West or the East? Your assets end up in the hands of Western consumers or the Chinese. Do they contribute project funding to Amazon Green?

NE: No. Not yet.

AJ: So, you must laugh at the situation in Britain where there is a huge drive to rewild Britain, an overcrowded island nation, when all the funds and resources for rewilding would be far better spent in your hands?

NE: I do not laugh at the British situation but I understand why some people might. Yes, it makes far more sense to invest the money in reforestation in the Amazon or elsewhere, or, ideally, by doing both. This is the principle behind carbon credits but the market is new, still finding its feet and subject to massive corruption by the Green lobby, which is a terrible shame.

AJ: If you wanted to you are saying you could reforest an area the size of Wales?

NE: There are 2,064,100 hectares in Wales. At this time there are farms for sale like Fazenda Maranhão with 3264 ha, 4 private homes, 26 pastures, which are completely developed with electricity and internet, including 15 km of asphalt road, selling at R$45,000,000 which is about £7,000,000. With the billions spent on rewilding in the UK you could easily buy 600 of those farms and reforest them or – much cheaper – acquire land in the rainforests which can be seeded much cheaper and you will reforest the equivalent of Wales in say two years. That could be a British project. To reforest the equivalent of Britain inside Brazil is not far-fetched but it would be a major task. It is achievable, yes.

AJ: So why are the British environmental class so myopic?

NE: I cannot speak for them but I do know the British financial class and they are the most visionary on the planet. They can surely link corporate social responsibility with planting trees in Brazil and elsewhere. The idea that Britain, with its growing population, will suffer food insecurity because of a lack of agricultural land because it has been given away to rewilding seems very tragic indeed.

AJ: Nefertith, what is the relationship like between the Amazonian peoples and President Lula?

NE: I prefer not to comment on Brazilian politics. All I can say is that there has traditionally been a distrust between local tribes and national politicians. When sanctions are handed out so they cannot earn a living or improve their lives with what they possess, that makes life very difficult for them. Government is making an effort to learn and so we live in hope and optimism.

AJ: Nefertith, thanks for your time and the very best of luck with your various projects.

NE: My pleasure, Alexia. All the very best to you too.