Robin Le Breton

Director, Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research and Conservation Center

People with enquiring minds – like those who read this page, for example – might ask how it comes about that a guy who runs a rainforest research center in South America has a Master’s degree in Law from one of the world’s oldest universities, where, as of course they will know, the Law of the Jungle is not part of the curriculum. You will not find the answer to that question here.

I was raised on a farm in Africa and my father often told me that farming is a mug’s game and that I’d never be able to make a living from it. I didn’t really believe him but I thought it was useful advice, so armed with a second degree (in Agricultural Economics), I was obviously perfectly equipped to be an Expert in Agricultural Development. For twenty years I pursued this, my third career, very happily: I traveled about the world a great deal and was handsomely paid to tell farmers on five different continents how they should run their farms. They listened very politely, and then went on doing what they had always done. Eventually it dawned upon me that something was wrong, so as soon as I had paid off my mortgage and educated my children, I bought a farm of my own to study my father’s theories at closer quarters. I discovered that he had been right all along. I also discovered that farms are part of a system – an ecosystem, for example, as well as a social system, so you can’t make a farm produce bountifully if you ignore the systems of which it is part. Well one thing led to another, so the farm got involved with the forest and the forest got involved with the people who live in it, and nobody really seemed to know for sure how it all worked, so we ended up founding a research center to see if we could figure it out. It wasn’t so surprising that I should end up living in the middle of the jungle with jaguars and anacondas on all sides: I was always been fond of animals, every since I was a small child. Once I was walking through the forest when a tiger jumped on me and started gnawing my shoulder. I whipped round, gouged out its eyes and stamped on them and they popped like ripe grapes. My father said later it couldn’t have been a tiger since there aren’t any in Africa. I never cared much about details - maybe it was a zebra. I remember it had stripes. I was only four at the time so how much would you expect me to remember, anyway?

Of course, I had to get another degree as well, otherwise no one would take me seriously, so I got a Master’s in Environmental Management just to prove I know all about it. I do other things as well: I founded Iracambi to support rainforest research, I work with local government (I founded and chaired of the county economic development council) and I am member of the State Environmental Policy Council as well as former vice–chairman of the State Park advisory council. And, yes, I do have some practical skills, too: like any country boy, I can vaccinate a calf, skin an ox, operate a chainsaw. I can change the gearbox in a Land Rover, pilot an aircraft and I play a mean hand of Risk. I speak all kinds of different languages. Trouble is I can’t remember what they all are - this is called Dynamic Random Access Memory Decay and is relieved (but not cured) by keeping your hard drive in the refrigerator. Or by putting your head in a bucket of water.

Binka Le Breton

Writer and lecturer on environmental and human rights

Binka lives on a rainforest farm, runs the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center, lectures and broadcasts internationally on rainforest and human rights topics, is president of Amigos de Iracambi, and also finds time to research and write books. She is currently working with Brazilian and American colleagues on the development of a feature film. If you want to find out more about any of the work that she does, or you would like her to come and give a lecture for your organization, please contact her at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Binka's new book, Where the Road Ends: a Home in the Brazilian Rainforest, gives readers the inside story of the founding of Iracambi - the backwoods backstory. Published by St Martins Press, New York, in May 2010 it has received rave reviews from the New York Times, the Washington Post and Associated Press.

Binka's previous book, The Greatest Gift, 2008, Doubleday, New York tells the story of Sister Dorothy Stang, assassinated in the Amazon forest in February 2005 in her battle to protect family farmers threatened by illegal loggers. During her US tour in March 2008 Binka was the guest of WAMU's Diane Rehm show, broadcast nationally and internationally through National Public Radio (you can hear the podcast from this link) and also appeared in New York on the Joey Reynolds Show. You can review the book on the Doubleday site:http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385522182, download it on Kindle, or get the audio version (read by Binka) from the publisher, or from Amazon.com. The Portuguese edition, A Maior Dádiva, was published by Globo, São Paulo.

Binka's other books

Voices from the Amazon, 1993, Kumarian Press, tells the story of the Amazon forest as seen through the eyes of the forest people themselves: the Indians, rubber tappers, loggers, ranchers, goldminers and the river people. Here's where you can learn about the complex issues in the conservation/development debate without getting bitten by mosquitoes and soaked by Amazon rain!

A Land to Die For, 1997, Clarity Press, is the story of a brave man murdered for his beliefs. In Brazil's fierce land wars, Padre Josimo stood up for the dispossessed in the remote regions of the Amazon forest, and paid for it with his life. The Portuguese version, Todos Sabiam, was published by Loyola, São Paulo, in May 2000.

Rainforest, 1997, Longmans, London, introduces children of rainforest countries to their forest heritage.

Trapped: Modern Day Slavery in the Brazilian Amazon, 2003, Kumarian Press, Bloomfield, CT, USA, (with a forward by Archbishop Desmond Tutu) was given a Judges Award in 2004 by World Hunger Year of New York. These awards are given for outstanding coverage of hunger and poverty-related issues. It was published in Portuguese,Italian and French, and if you want to buy any of Binka's books please click on the Amazon logo to earn a referral percentage for Iracambi.