Woodcutter

ECO123: Are you a woodcutter?
Woodcutter: Yes.

What do you cut down normally?
Eucalyptus, pine trees… At present, it’s eucalyptus and pine that are in greatest demand.

Where are you from?
I’m from Brazil.

A chain saw like that cuts well, doesn’t it?
Sure, it’ll even cut your legs if you’re not careful.

Is it hard work?
Oh, we’re accustomed to it … used to it.

And do you earn well doing this work?
Not bad.

Quite good, or not bad?
100 € a day.

100€ a day? And social security?
…

And what else do you do here? You do the cutting and then?
We cut and fell the tree – then the machine comes and takes the tree away.

But you only cut?
We just cut, then other people come. The guy with the machine and the one with the truck which goes to the factory.

Do you cut the forest down completely?
Yes.

What does a tree mean to you?
For me a tree means life, doesn’t it? I think it’s like, just like us, isn’t it?

It is. But when you cut it down, life ends, doesn’t it?
Sure, but it will generate another life, through it there will be something else won’t there?

Can I ask you your name please?
Isaías.

And your age?
31.

Thank you very much.

About the author

Uwe Heitkamp, 53 years old, started working after university in daily newspapers and from 1984 on in public tv broadcasting companies such as WDR (Collogne), NDR (Hamburg), SDR (Stuttgart/Baden-Baden) in the ARD (first programme), wrote several books and directed the cinema movie about the anti nuclear movement in Germany in 1986 (Wackersdorf). After emigration in 1990 he founded 1995 the trilingual weekly printed newspaper “Algarve123”  and later the online edition www.algarve123.com. Heitkamp lives for 25 year in Monchique, Portugal. He loves mountain hiking and swimming in streams and lakes, writes and tells stories of success from people and their sustainable relationship between ecology and economy. His actual film “Revolutionary Roads” tells the 60 minute story of a long walk crossing Portugal. 10 rural people paint a picture of their lives in the hills of the serra and the hinterland. The film captures profound impressions of natural beauty and human life. Along which path is the future of Portugal to be found? (subscribe to ECO123 und watch the documentary in the Mediatec)