On Saturday, February 12, Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73 year-old American nun who had lived for more than 30 years in the Amazon rainforest, was assassinated. Dorothy had dedicated nearly half of her life to giving a voice to rural communities working for land rights and sustainable development in the Amazon rainforests.

Because of her advocacy, she often received death threats from unruly landgrabbers throughout the state of Para, an area plagued with violence resulting from ongoing land disputes and illegal logging.

Amidst international outcry over this tragedy, Brazil's President Lula da Silva recently ordered the creation of two massive new rainforest reserves http://www.ran.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1336&area=home totaling more than 9 million acres in the state of Para.

Click here
http://action.ran.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=24499&ms=Feb05 to send a letter to the Sisters of Notre Dame Namur in Brazil acknowledging Sister Dorothy Stang's dedication and life's work advocating for sustainable development and protection of Brazil's tropical rainforests and their inhabitants.