AMERICA/BRAZIL - Let's defend the Amazon from frontal attacks against indigenous peoples, the rainforest and water security

Monday, 13 December 2021 amazon   environment   exploitation   indigenous   laws   episcopal conferences   human rights  

Celam

Brasilia (Agenzia Fides) - "There is a frontal and articulated attack underway against the indigenous peoples, the traditional communities of the Amazon, the integrity of the Amazon rainforest, the water security of all Brazilians and the stability of the planetary climate system". This is the complaint of Commissions and Organizations linked to the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) in an article published on December 10, with the eloquent title: "In defense of the Amazon". Concerned about this year's wave of attacks on the Amazon, the Commissions for Integral Ecology and the Amazon of the CNBB, the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (Repam-Brazil), the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), the Pastoral Commission of the Earth (CPT) and the Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace (CBJP) draw attention to these threats.
In the text, sent to Fides, the organizations working in the Amazon denounce that, in the last two years, "the Amazon rainforest has been handed over by the federal government to deforesters, arsonists and miners, gold-seekers". The effects of the "incentive to crime" are increased deforestation and fires. Another worrying reality is illegal mining, carried out with the consent of the government, since it is an "activity that occupies one of the central points of the government's agenda". The gold-miners "invade communities, kill and terrorize indigenous peoples, destroy forests, pollute rivers and seriously poison organisms with mercury". The threats also pass through the legislative chambers. In the Chamber and the Senate, three bills are being prepared "in order to complete the dismantling of the legislation that protects the country’s ethnic, cultural and natural heritage", denounces the article. Finally, the words of Sister Dorothy Stang are remembered, killed with six shots fired point-blank on the morning of February 12, 2005 in the municipality of Anapu (see Fides, 16/2/2015): "The death of the forest is the end of our life". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 13/12/2021)


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