during the last two decades, notable public figures have repeatedly voiced more extreme opinions about the amazon - in 1989 al gore, then a senator, stated that 'contrary to what brazilians may believe, the amazon is not their property, it belongs to all of us', and in 2001, pascal lamy of the world trade organization - wto, argued that 'the forests of the amazon are a strategic environmental asset not just for the countries belonging to the amazon treaty organization, but for the whole planet.'   

 though conspiracy theories about the outside world attempting to seize brazil's biological wealth and diversity have run rampant for decades -  these modern-day declarations on the heel of innovative medical research in the amazon have further ignited profound nationalist and territorial feelings amongst brazilians, including cariocas.