| José Cláudio da Silva | |
| Birth Name: | José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva |
| Other Names: | Zé Cláudio |
| Birth Date: | January 22, 1957 |
| Death Place: | Brazil |
| Death Cause: | Murder |
| Death Date: | May 24, 2011 |
| Nationality: | Brazilian |
| Occupation: | conservationist and environmentalist |
| Spouse: | Maria do Espírito Santo |
| Children: | 3 |
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva (January 22, 1957 – May 24, 2011) was a Brazilian conservationist and environmentalist who campaigned against logging and clearcutting of trees in the Amazon rainforest.[1]
Ribeiro da Silva, who was also known by the nickname Zé Cláudio, campaigned against illegal logging, deforestation and ranchers.[2] He originally worked as a community leader at a forest reserve that produced sustainable rainforest products, such as oils and nuts.[2] He became an anti-logging activist as illegal loggers began to encroach further into untouched areas of Pará, his largely forested home state in northern Brazil.[2] He and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, had received death threats for his activism in favor of the preservation of Brazil's rainforest.[1] In 2008, a report issued by a group of Brazilian human rights groups listed Ribeiro da Silva one of a dozen activists based in the Amazon to be "considered at risk" of harm or assassination by opponents.[1] [3]
In November 2010, da Silva was invited to speak at TED conference.[2] He told the TED audience that his particular region of Pará once had 85% coverage of native Amazonian plants.[2] However, since the arrival of loggers, the region's plant biodiversity had shrunk to just 20% native Amazonian plant life.[2] Da Silva also acknowledged the death threats that he had received, "I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment — because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers."[4]
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, aged 52, and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, aged 51, were shot and killed in an ambush attack on May 24, 2011.[1] The attack occurred at a settlement called Maçaranduba 2, which is located near their home in Nova Ipixuna, Pará.[1] José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva had been refused police protection by local authorities, according to reports by the Diário do Pará and The Guardian.[1] Da Silva murder brought comparisons with the killings of environmentalist Chico Mendes in 1988[1] and American nun Dorothy Stang in 2005.[5]
Da Silva was survived by his adopted sixteen-year-old son and two children from a previous marriage.[2]
Two other environmental activist were also killed soon after Da Silva - Eremilton Pereira dos Santos, a farmer who was killed in the same area of Pará, and Adelino Ramos, a farmer and leader of the Corumbiara Peasant Movement in Rondônia, who was shot while selling vegetables on May 27, 2011.[6] The Brazilian government pledged to protect Amazonian activists in an emergency cabinet meeting held on May 31, 2011, to deal with the crisis.[6]
At the 2012 United Nations Forum on Forests held in New York, José and Maria were recognised posthumously by a special Forest Heroes Award.[7] [8]