The Raimundo Irineu Serra Environmental Development Institute joined other organizations and social movements active in the Amazon to launch a collective manifesto in defense of our territory and our Forest.
Read the manifesto in full:
On September 5, 2024, we celebrate another Amazon Day in Brazil. In several places in our country, there will be demonstrations to draw attention to the serious environmental and climate crisis we are experiencing.
There is little to celebrate. Although we have resumed the protection of forests and the restructuring of control and inspection agencies, the climate crisis we are experiencing has intensified in recent years in a way never seen before – we have suffered from landslides on the northern coast of São Paulo, floods in Rio Grande do Sul, heat waves in Rio de Janeiro, and now we are in the midst of the worst drought ever recorded in the Amazon basin and the smoke that is spreading across more than 9 states caused by the fires.
We cannot remain aloof or be spectators, we need to take action.
At least since 1972, with the World Conference on Man and the Environment, known as the Stockholm Conference, the world has been aware of the relationship between environmental destruction and global warming. Since then, the situation has worsened despite all the international conferences and discussions proposed by governments and states. Data indicate that greenhouse gas emissions have increased drastically in the last 50 years. The emissions predicted for 2050, with serious consequences for humanity, will occur by 2030, twenty years in advance, worsening the living conditions of millions of people around the world.
When we look at this history, we see that the current economic model based on the accumulation of capital at any cost is leading humanity to misfortune. Those who suffer the most are the working class, especially the poorest and most precarious, the black and indigenous populations, and the situation of women and children is particularly serious, especially in developing countries.
By demonstrating on this Amazon Day, we want to contribute to raising the level of awareness of the Brazilian people, so that we all have more information about the facts and the main causes of this serious environmental crisis and the destruction of the Amazon in particular. We are talking about very powerful sectors of our ruling class: financial capital, agribusiness, the mining and energy transnationals that privatize our common goods, among others.
Those who deforest and burn our forests are burning our future, and they are enemies of the Brazilian people and enemies of humanity, and they must be held accountable for their crimes. We are not just talking about those who set fires in the forest or fields, but an entire chain of powerful interests, with a strong presence in political institutions, that put profit above all else and destroy our common future. It is the economic model that needs to be changed.
It is necessary to encourage social, cultural and technological development programs that help to free our country from the traps of dependent capitalism and that have as their basic premise the integral respect for life and the environment. It is necessary to demand that our country have a project based on sovereignty with distribution of wealth and popular control.
Finally, on this day we must commit to expanding our organizational work, raising the level of awareness and socio-environmental commitment of all Brazilians, especially those living in the areas most affected by extreme events. We stand alongside those who have historically been responsible for defending life and the Amazon: indigenous peoples, riverside communities, extractivists, peasants, and also the urban working class. Only organized people, with unity of purpose and in struggle, are capable of proposing true solutions.
We commit to encouraging, proposing and demanding that governments and authorities increasingly assume their commitment to economic justice, social justice and environmental justice with broad participation and protagonism of our people.
And we also demand that international organizations, governments and companies in countries that have historically generated high levels of pollution now pay the bill for the harm they have done to humanity to date.
On this Amazon Day, we must all assume that defending the Amazon is defending life.
Save the Amazon! We are all affected.
The manifesto is signed by:
Access to Citizenship and Human Rights
ACME - Collective Timber Association
AJD
AMB/PA - Articulation of Brazilian Women
Friends of the Earth Brazil
Artists for democracy
Artists for democracy
Brazilian Antinuclear Articulation
Brazilian Articulation for the Economy of Francis and Clare - ABEFC
National Articulation of the 30th Cry of the Excluded in Brazil
ASELCI - Association Sowing Letters and Citizenship
Asiarfa - Intermunicipal Environmental Association in Defense of the Formate River and Its Tributaries
Cultural and Sustainable Association of the Amazon
Madeira Pirarucu Cultural Association
Association of Judges for Democracy
Association of Housing Movements of the Southeast Region
Association Daughters of the Boto Never Again
Association of Judges for Democracy (AJD)
AVE - Esperançar Village Association
Amazonian Women's Bench
C-PARTES - Rondônia Research and Activism Collective on Technology, State and Society
Chamber of Deputies
Rosimar Francelino's candidacy for councilwoman
Brazilian Caritas - Northwest Articulation
BRAZILIAN CHARITAS REGIONAL NORTH II
FREE CHAIR OF DDHH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LA PATAGONIA
Single Workers' Central of the State of Pará
Human Rights Defense Center
Education and Promotion Center for Sustainable Development (Ceprodeso)
Gaspar Garcia Center for Human Rights
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Center
Oscar A Romero Center - Cuba
Palmares Center for Studies and Advice on Rights
CEPIS - Popular Education Center of the Sedes Sapientiae Institute
Ceprocig - Center for the Promotion and Recovery of Citizenship Grajaú Paulo VI
Palmarino Circle
CMMLK CUBA
CMP - Central of Popular Movements
CNTE - National Confederation of Education Workers
Arewá Collective
Feminist Collective A woman's place is wherever she wants it to be. Rio Preto SP
LGBTQIAPN+ Somar Collective from Porto Velho/RO
Popular Collective Right to the City of Porto Velho-RO
Fishermen's Colony Z-2/RO Guajará-Mirim
Episcopal Commission for Socio-Transformative Action -CNBB
Chico Mendes Committee
Mother Earth Community of Ibirá
Guaitecas indigenous community patagonia chile
FREE CITIZEN COMMUNITY (COMCIL)
Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) CEB Collegiate, State of São Paulo.
Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) Southern Region 1
COMVIDA - Committee for the Defense of Amazonian Life in the Madeira River Basin
CONAQ - National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities
National Confederation of Education Workers - CNTE
Council of the Mayan People CPO
National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil
Pastoral Council of Fishermen - Southern Region
Contrahegemoniaweb - Communication Collective
Coordination of the Remaining Associations of Quilombos of Pará (MALUNGU)
National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities
CPP - Pastoral Council of Fishermen and Fisherwomen
CTB/PARÁ - Central of Workers of Brazil
Cubasolar
Federal Deputy Nilto Tatto
Deputy Marcon
EFA JAGUARE
Chico Mendes Trade Union Training School in the Amazon
FAOR - Eastern Amazon Forum
DEMA PHASE/FUND
FECUARON
FEDERATION OF WORKERS IN FAMILY FARMING IN TOCANTINS - FETRAF-TO
Interstate Federation of Urban Labor (GO;MT;TO;MS;DF)
Federacion Costarricense para la Conservacion del Ambiente (FECON)
Fetagri
FOBOMADE - Bolivian Forum on Environment and Development
FONSANPOTMA - National Forum for Food and Nutritional Security of Traditional Peoples of African Origin
Amazon Forum for Truth, Justice and Reparation
Social Pastoral Forum
Forum of Social Pastorals of the Pastoral Area of Vitória
Justice Forum in Rio Grande do Sul
Popular Forum in Defense of Vila Velha
Foundation Reference Center for Environmental Education Professor Eidorfe Moreira Bosque School - FUNBOSQUE
Patagonia Coastal Foundation
FUP
Study Group on Collective Actions, Conflicts and Territories
Kavilando Research and Publishing Group // Interuniversity Network for Peace REDIPAZ // GIDPAD Research Group University of San Buenaventura Medellín
GT Environment lapenna
GUARDIANS OF THE TERRITORY
Roman Catholic Apostolic Church
United Presbyterian Church of Brazil IPU
IMV - Madeira Living Institute
Technological Incubator of Popular Cooperatives of the Federal University of Rondônia
INESC - Institute of Socioeconomic Studies
Raiumundo Irineu Serra Environmental Development Institute - IDARIS
EcoVida Institute
Consolata Missions Institute Justice and Peace Commission and Integrity of Creation JPIC
Omolara Institute Brazil
Sister Teresa Rita Gomes Carita
Global Justice
Xingu Bookstore
MAB - Movement of People Affected by Dams
World March of Women
MCP - Popular Peasant Movement
Tabitha Mission
MMC - Peasant Women's Movement
Black Feminist Movement
Amazonas Women's Solidarity Movement (Muses)
Movement of people affected by dams
Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice
Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice [MADJ)
Movement of Biogas Users and other renewable energy sources
Costa Rica Living Rivers Movement
Movimientos Concertacion Universitaria.
MPA - Small Farmers Movement
MST - Landless Movement
MTC - Rural Workers' Movement
MTST - Homeless Workers Movement
MULUCA
NARA Action Center for Agrarian Reform
CEBS core
OLMA - Observatory of Socio-Environmental Justice
Workers' Party
Workers' Party in the Federal District
Afro-Brazilian pastoral
Workers' Pastoral
Workers' Pastoral - Sao Paulo
PJRS
Platform of Social Movements for Another Political System
Planet Amazon Program
Ptzao
Network of Popular Educators of Camagüey, from the Martín Luther King Center
Information and Environmental Action Network of Veracruz/Mexico
Red de Protección y Defense del Territorio Patagonia- Chile
National Red in Defensa del Agua Panama
Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network - Brazil
National Network of Popular Lawyers
REPODH-RO - Popular Network for Human Rights of Rondônia
Magazine and editorial collective Herramienta
Union
Union of Water, Sewage and Environmental Workers in the State of ES
Municipal Education Workers Union
Sindipetro ES
SPM - Pastoral Service for Migrants
Land of Rights
Trinchera Utopía Biblioteca Popular Coyhaique Chile
UNEFAB - National Union of Agricultural Family Schools
Communist Youth Union of Rondônia
National Union for Public Housing -UNMP
Black Capixaba Unit
UNIPOP - Popular University Institute
Federal University of Ouro Preto
Federal University of Pará
Comments