Maria Helena Silva

A Brazilian environmentalist who pioneered rainforest conservation in the 1930s.

Maria Helena Silva (1905–1998) was a visionary Brazilian environmentalist whose work laid the foundation for modern rainforest conservation. Born in the Amazon region, she witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by unchecked logging and land clearance. In the 1930s, she became one of the first advocates to challenge government policies favoring deforestation for agriculture. Her landmark 1937 report, A Crying Amazon, combined scientific data with emotional appeals, influencing Brazil’s first environmental protection laws. Silva later co-founded the Amazon Conservation Society, establishing protected zones that preserved 1.2 million hectares of rainforest. Her grassroots campaigns empowered indigenous communities through eco-tourism projects, a concept decades ahead of its time. Despite facing ridicule from industrialists, her legacy endures in the Amazon Rainforest Protection Act (1965), which she helped draft. Modern climate scientists credit her early warnings about biodiversity loss as foundational to today’s global conservation efforts.