sokari douglas camp at her studio in london. the brazilian environmental activist chico mendes was shot dead in the amazon rainforest. his close friend remembers the early days of the struggle to protect the amazon. when chico mendes was killed, it was a terrible feeling. so sad. at that time, no one was concerned about the forest. he changed my life radically. chico mendes was a leader of the protest movement of the 805. it was he who warned the world your environment depends on keeping our rainforest alive. i first met chico mendes in 1981, in the western part of the amazon. he was a very happy person, a very charismatic person. he was organising the rubber toppers to protect the forest, to stop deforestation. poor people defend the forest because the forest was their livelihood. it was so dangerous to do this kind of movement at that time. my dream is to see this entire forest conserved because we know it can guarantee the future of all the people who live in it. chico mendes asked my help. he wanted to strengthen the capacit