Chico Mendes

Francisco Alves Mendes Filho (15 December 1944 – 22 December 1988), better known as Chico Mendes (Brazilian Portuguese:), was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader, and environmentalist who fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and Indigenous people. He was assassinated by a hired killer on 22 December 1988. The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade or ICMBio), a body under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, is named in his honour.