A fight for the Amazon
In the words of women indigenous leaders.
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Canoe planter, Brazilian Amazon. © Anita Makri
The Worldwise View
“You are not as complex as the rainforest.”
Last November, I was invited to meet a delegation of Brazilian indigenous leaders representing 300 communities. They had just completed a month-long tour of 12 European countries.
That day’s interview didn’t get published at the time. But I knew I had to come back to it.
Greenpeace was facilitating the tour, advocating for governments to break ties with companies that do business from extraction of natural resources in the Amazon rainforest. It followed last year’s devastating fires, and the killing of forest defender Paulo Paulino Guajajara, known as Lobo—a leader of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil.
The campaign seemed to be stepping up a fight for survival that’s long-standing—pressures on the Amazon and indigenous groups aren’t new. And I wanted to know why: what was different now?
The words in response came in an unrelenting stream and a steady voice from Angela Kaxuyana, an activist and member of the Coordination of the Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), and of the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) in the Amazon region.
I paste them here unedited.
“Since Brazil was invaded, the indigenous people have been attacked. No government has ever prioritised the indigenous lives and the recognition of indigenous peoples. The big difference is that in other governments this agenda against indigenous people hasn’t been as explicit as it has been during the Bolsonaro government. This is the only Brazilian president who even in the beginning of his campaign already had as one of his priorities the non demarcation of indigenous lands. It's the only government that as its first act, [has] put on policies that see the dismantling of indigenous policies in Brazil. This is the only president who has been attacking indigenous people in an institutional way, and has made it part of his campaign to attack indigenous people. He is the only president who has decided to put in his official policies and his official agenda the attack on indigenous peoples. The other governments may not have done things, they may not have recognised indigenous rights [but this one] declared absolutely publicly that the indigenous people were the number one enemy.”
During the interview I was told that the delegation had met with representatives of European governments, calling on them to act against firms that source materials from protected forest—presenting evidence of supply chains traced from deforested lands to agricultural products sold by 27 global companies.
I asked Kaxuyana, why Europe?
“Europe because it makes up a number of countries that consume the most number of products that come from areas of conflict. And this attack on our peoples, this idea of wanting to exterminate us is exactly because of the interest people have in taking over our territories. Because our territories are the only territories still standing that maintain biodiversity, that maintain its wealth ... and still has the forest standing.
This pressure from this demand of consumption that takes place in Europe is leading to deforestation, is leading to invasion, is leading to forest fire [to clear the land].
So we have to warn the people in Europe about what exactly they're consuming and that they're responsible for this cultivation that takes place in indigenous land, in land that's being deforested.”
What does it have to do with us?
Identity, land and home are among the basic elements of life for most of us. If they come under threat, we fight back to reclaim them.
That’s one way deforestation matters for local communities. But their fight for territory in the Amazon also has global implications.
Evidence is growing that deforestation rates are lower in land managed by indigenous people, supporting arguments for granting land tenure to forest communities. Keeping tropical forests intact has many benefits, but one that touches us all is the capacity to curb greenhouse gas emissions and counteract climate change. The Amazon is reaching an irreversible tipping point, after which it would both release greenhouse gases and no longer act as a carbon sink.
Earlier this year I wrote about another connection between disturbing forests, consumer habits and our health: the emergence of diseases like the novel coronavirus. Another story published just this month has warned of risks along these lines specifically for deforestation in the Amazon.
A year on
Almost one year since that interview I’ve lost count of the number of reports I’ve come across about conflict, resource exploitation and the pandemic’s impact in Amazon communities. I share some, not all, in the weekly roundups. You’ll find a collection of recent headlines not shared previously at the bottom of this post.
They make up one form of evidence for an escalating threat.
In that time, two initiatives pushing in a different direction also caught my eye.
One is The Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition that brings together 230 environmental groups and Brazilian agribusiness companies, which in September reportedly sent an open letter to president Bolsonaro urging him to fight deforestation.
I don’t think I’ve previously come across a coalition of environmental groups and agribusiness.
One of the members is JBS, the massive meat processing company named in July in an investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism that traced its supply chain to cattle from a deforested part of the Amazon.
The other initiative is the Science Panel for the Amazon, convened earlier this year, which is made up by more than 180 researchers, including indigenous peoples. The Panel is working on an in-depth scientific assessment that aims to issue recommendations for sustainable development of the Amazon.
Last week it issued a letter in support of a statement published in the Guardian by Nemonte Nenquim—the first female president of the Waorani organisation of Pastaza province in the Ecuadorian Amazon and cofounder of the nonprofit organisation Ceibo Alliance, who this year was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Here’s an extract from her message:
“In each of our many hundreds of different languages across the Amazon, we have a word for you – the outsider, the stranger. In my language, WaoTededo, that word is “cowori”. And it doesn’t need to be a bad word. But you have made it so. For us, the word has come to mean (and in a terrible way, your society has come to represent): the white man that knows too little for the power that he wields, and the damage that he causes.
You are probably not used to an Indigenous woman calling you ignorant and, less so, on a platform such as this. But for Indigenous peoples it is clear: the less you know about something, the less value it has to you, and the easier it is to destroy. And by easy, I mean: guiltlessly, remorselessly, foolishly, even righteously. And this is exactly what you are doing to us as Indigenous peoples, to our rainforest territories, and ultimately to our planet’s climate.
It took us thousands of years to get to know the Amazon rainforest. To understand her ways, her secrets, to learn how to survive and thrive with her. And for my people, the Waorani, we have only known you for 70 years (we were “contacted” in the 1950s by American evangelical missionaries), but we are fast learners, and you are not as complex as the rainforest.”
A snapshot of threats to the Amazon
The Amazon is burning, and it’s a story that intertwines politics, global business and indigenous communities - Open Democracy here, here, here
'We are being squeezed', says prize-winning Amazon indigenous activist - Reuters
Amazon deforestation two-thirds lower on titled indigenous land - Reuters
For small farmers in a drier Amazon, fire is no longer a tool they can use to manage the land - Mongabay
Mining taking place on more than 20 percent of indigenous land in the Amazon - Yale E360
Nearly one-third of the fish in the Brazilian Amazon state of Amapa have such high levels of mercury - France24/AFP
European banks face calls by indigenous groups to end oil trade - Reuters
Amazon gold mining drives malaria surges among Indigenous peoples - Nat Geo
Munduruku indigenous leaders say their land is being invaded as gold prices rise - Reuters
VISUAL | Forest fires devastate Brazil's Pantanal tropical wetlands -BBC
A final note from the week’s soundtrack 🌎
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