dezembro, 13 2010

This week’s edition of the Epoca magazine publishes a list of the 100 most influential Brazilians in the year 2010 according to the opinions of specialists for the various areas, the magazine’s own journalists and the Globo Organisations Council. Among those elected by the magazine is WWF-Brazil’s Conservation Director for Regional Programmes, Cláudio Maretti.

Epoca’s Editor-in-chief Alexandre Mansur explained that Maretti was elected in the category “Hero” in recognition of his capacity to serve as an inspiring example and his leadership in the struggle for the conservation of Brazilian biodiversity.

In a letter published together with the respective material WWF Network’s Director General Jim Leape called attention to Maretti’s natural talent for communication and his perseverance in addressing governments and large corporations “to make them take environment issues seriously”.

WWF Brazil’s CEO Denise Hamú declared that it was difficult to identify anywhere in the conservation sphere where Cláudio Maretti had not been involved or taking the lead, in recent years.

“For more than three decades he has intensely dedicated his personal and professional life to the conservation of life, ecosystems, and biodiversity as the basis for sustainable development. The work of this highly persistent, strategic and amiable Brazilian is imbued with his sensitive vision of the planet and at the same time in alignment with his deep concern for his own country and the future of humanity. WWF-Brazil is very proud of this recognition of Claudio who has been with us for seven years. We have always sought to attract and maintain great talents in our ranks and provide them with space and conditions that enable them to achieve important results and contribute to the overall objectives of our organisation”, stated Denise Hamú.

Cláudio Maretti says he is flattered and grateful but he refuses to accept Epoca’s homage in his own name alone.

“Throughout 2010, WWF-Brazil and the WWF Network made great efforts for the International Year of Biodiversity and I headed some of the activities but always as the representative of a collective effort”, explained Maretti.

WWF-Brazil’s director says that he can only understand his indication in the context of the processes that unfolded in the course of the year. “It was a favourable moment with a good result obtained in Nagoya and important contribution made by the governments of Brazil and Japan and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.”

Cláudio mentions other factors that contributed to his nomination, victories to which WWF-Brazil made a considerable contribution, like the stage of development achieved by the Amazon Protected Areas Programme (ARPA, a Brazilian Government Programme supported by WWF-Brazil), and participation in the Pan-Amazonian Protected Areas Initiative, the references to Brazil in the UN report as one of the places that is best addressing direct threats of degradation, and more recently, the publication of the Map of Ecosystem Conversion (mapping areas of deforestation in the Upper Paraguay River basin which drains into the Pantanal) and the creation of the Restinga de Bertioga State Park.

“Being placed among the nation’s one hundred most influential individuals is an important indication but I can only attribute relative merit to myself because the roles played by WWF-Brazil and the WWF Network were absolutely fundamental”, concludes Maretti.