The Chico Mendes Chair Programme
Programme inception
In 2023, the University of Birmingham and the Brazilian Federal Funding Agency for graduate education (CAPES) signed a partnership agreement to inaugurate the Chico Mendes Chair Programme at the University of Birmingham.
The programme supports an annual visiting chair appointment with an associated one-year postdoctoral and sandwich PhD fellowship over a five-year term, bringing 15 Brazilian academics to Birmingham to build collaborations across multiple research areas of interest, including the Environmental Sciences, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Sustainability, Societies and Environment.
Professors Robin Mason, Birmingham’s Professor Robin Mason, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) at the University of Birmingham and Professor Mercedes Bustamante, President of CAPES, signing agreement in Brasilia
Graduate studies and science need to be means of knowledge production to solve local, regional, national, and even global issues, as is the case of this edict. And the fact that it has the name of Chico Mendes enhances this partnership, by associating environmental conservation with social justice.
Chico Mendes, a history
The programme is named in honour of the Brazillian seringueiro (rubber tapper), lands right leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes (1944-1988) who was assassinated for his activism. Mendes was born in 1944 in Xapuri, Acre, Brazil and began work as a rubber tapper at the age of nine alongside his father.
Like many, Mendes' father descended from indentured rubber tappers, recruited to increase rubber production following the "rubber boom". In the 1970's, the civil military dictatorship supported clearing the Amazon rainforest for cattle farming, roadworks, and mining, resulting in displacement, poverty, and isolation for many seringueiros.
Chico Mendes
Mendes fought against this, organising peaceful protests, such as blocking the path of bulldozers and chainsaws in stand-offs, acts known as empate. Mendes also organised the Xapuri Rural Workers Union and the National Council of Rubber Tappers in Brasília. Eventually, cattle ranchers opposed to Mendes' activism assassinated the 44-year-old conservationist in the backyard of his family home in 1988.
Before his death, Mendes' efforts led to both local and international recognition, including an invitation to speak at the annual conference of the Inter-American Development Bank Fund and the National Wildlife Federation regarding an IDB-funded road project in Acre that threatened the rainforest and its inhabitants. Mendes also advocated for extractive reserves, a project implemented by the government after his death and in response to societal pressure. Now, the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve is the largest in the country and continues to preserve the area for indigenous communities.
