Five years on

In our regular review, we revisit stories we picked out as interesting back in 2001, and check if they’re bearing fruit now.

From rags to riches

Favela seamstresses take to designer stage

With ethical fashion so much in the spotlight, it’s impressive but not so surprising that a women’s co-operative from a sprawling favela of Rio de Janeiro is getting its clothes on to the catwalk [see 'Rags to ...'].

It started off as a simple fabric recycling and embroidery co-operative for mothers and children in the neighbourhood, but savvy founder Maria Teresa Leal decided to get Brazilian designers onboard. They steered the seamstresses away from embroidering traditional bed linen - for which there was little demand - towards more hip products. Now Coopa Roca is a commercial-scale designer clothing business, with over 100 talented workers (twice as many as in 2001) making orders for four Brazilian shops, embellishing evening gowns with woven flowers, crocheting bags, and giving armchairs a fluffy finish by ‘upholstering’ them with thousands of knots.

They also sell their goods on the US-based www.globalgirlfriend.com, an online store for women’s co-operatives worldwide, and their success extends right over to the UK - where they’re perhaps best known for working with designers Paul Smith and Agent Provocateur on displays for the Selfridges 2004 Brazil promotion. Leal hopes her future plans for larger headquarters will attract the younger generation, giving new families a livelihood too. - Velika Talyarkhan

Coopa Roca, +55 21 2422 5303

Amazon Earth

Satellite system polices the rainforest

As Google Earth launches its ‘before and after’ bird’s eye views of disappearing natural gems like the rainforest, we check back on the Brazilian project that put its faith in the power of the satellite image in an effort to pull the Amazon back from the brink of destruction [‘Amazon Air ’, GF31].

Now incorporating an ingenious system that tracks the movement of hardwoods by reading ‘barcodes’ at checkpoints through the forest, the billion-dollar Sistema de Proteção da Amazônia (SIPAM) is getting involved in some sophisticated policing of the area. It’s a good early warning system,  according to a spokeswoman from the Brazil embassy in London. “Obviously you then have to go there in person to investigate what’s going on,” she says, but she believes it helped pick up the scent of the 28 illegal loggers who were captured this summer in the defiantly named Operation Novo Empate (‘New Draw’, which might roughly translate as ‘The Equaliser’.)

So has SIPAM helped stop the spiralling deforestation? The country’s minister of the environment, Senator Marina Silva, stresses the wider context. National policy, she says, now places more emphasis on the value of “standing forests”. The Amazon forests still lost 18,793 sq km last year, but even this was cause for some celebration - it’s the first sign of a slowdown in forest loss in a decade. And the thought of the $10 billion loss in annual global market value from illegal logging spurred this autumn’s launch of the G8 Illegal Logging Dialogue. - Hannah Bullock

Embassy of Brazil in London,
020 7399 9000, www.brazil.org.uk
SIPAM, www.sipam.gov.br  (in Portuguese)
G8 Illegal Logging Dialogue, www.globeinternational.org/logging.html

Car sick?

Pedestrians reclaim the streets worldwide

Armchairs, masseurs, ping pong tables in the middle of central London roads... what is going on here? It’s Car Free Day, the one opportunity in the year to close the streets and imagine a sweet life without traffic. This year, around 1,400 cities across the world took part in the 22 September festivities (up from 961 in 2001) - [see GF31, 'Driven to the car-free experiment.], playing host to some wacky events. In Tauranga, New Zealand a ‘car crush’ event offered free bus passes to visitors who allowed their car to be crushed. In Quito, Ecuador, local activists took to the streets with measuring equipment, to document how much of the city space cars take up.

There was a new challenge thrown down to the organisers this time - to use parking lots in as ingenious ways as possible. One Islington artist filled hers with enough rosemary plants to offset the carbon dioxide that would have been omitted by the 16 cars that normally park in the space. Then she handed out the herbs to passers-by - for remembrance.

So is it all just a bit of fun? No, says Arnie Farnam of the World Carfree Network. “Events like these mean people start talking about the concept, and it really builds public awareness.” She points out that European Mobility Week - the EU-
co-ordinated annual event that now includes Car Free Day on the Friday - has a more serious angle. Participating cities must introduce permanent sustainable transport measures, and a raft of improvements across the continent have their roots in the initiative, ranging from a new cycle route in Bridgend to a park-and-ride service in Budapest. - Hannah Bullock

Transport 2000, 020 7613 7716, www.transport2000.org.uk   
World Carfree Network, +420 608 819 276, www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/

Crunch time

British apples alive and kicking

It’s alarming to hear that sad old statistic that Britain has lost two-thirds of its commercial orchards in the last 30 years, and with them the birds and beasties that thrive amongst the trees. And we haven’t yet turned the juggernaut around. But there are promising signs that conservationists are starting to protect this rare habitat. Traditional orchards are included as priorities in several county Biodiversity Action Plans, and are part of some RSPB and Wildlife Trust reserves. There are also over 300 community orchards in the UK, involving locals in planting and harvesting, throwing Apple Days, and helping revive vintage varieties.

So isn’t there a danger that we preserve our orchards in aspic, while the big retailers encourage customers to buy the usual Cox’s orange pippin or, worse still, Braeburns from New Zealand? Local diversity group Common Ground points out that only 20% of the apples on sale are home grown, and just nine varieties make up the majority of these...

But it’s not looking so bleak for the 2006-7 British apple season, with a few pioneering supermarkets stocking a range of unusual varieties. Sainsbury’s will be selling 22 different types in its stores across the country, Tesco 18, and Waitrose over 16, including the nutty tasting Egremont russet and the red skinned Discovery.

“There’s a general air of optimism,” says an enthusiastic Adrian Barlow of industry association English Apples and Pears. In the 1990s the market was completely saturated, he explains, but now growers are showing a “tremendous determination” to produce better-looking apples, develop new varieties, and introduce more advanced growing techniques. Sainsbury’s, for example, is encouraging its farmers to plant trees closer together in an attempt to triple the harvest per hectare and to reduce pesticide use.

Barlow thinks that the English apple season will particularly resonate with customers this year, “because there’s so much concern about food miles and global warming, and they see that they can make an important contribution by buying homegrown fruit”. - Hannah Bullock

Common Ground, 01747 850820, www.commonground.org.uk

English Apples and Pears, 01732 529781, www.englishapplesandpears.co.uk

8 November 2006

Hannah Bullock and Velika Talyarkhan