Catholic groups pressure Brazil and the United States to protect the Amazon and its inhabitants | Earth beat

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An indigenous man and child from the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe are pictured in a 2019 photo inspecting an area deforested by invaders on indigenous land near Campo Novo de Rondônia, Brazil. (CNS / Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino)

Catholic investors are pressuring the Brazilian government to step up protection for the Amazon, saying deforestation and fires in recent years are endangering ecosystems and the indigenous peoples that depend on them.

Meanwhile, religious groups working for environmental and indigenous rights in the South American country warn that any US policy to protect the Amazon must include the participation of indigenous peoples and other local communities. They plan to voice their concerns in a virtual meeting Amazon Climate Forum on April 15, which will include religious leaders and indigenous leaders from South America, as well as American scientists and lawmakers.

The event comes two weeks after Catholic investors in Europe and the United States sent a letter to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, urging him to protect the Amazon – more than 2 million square miles, an area seven times the size of Texas – and the people live there.

The letter of 29 March was organized by the Catholic Bank für Kirche und Caritas in Germany, together with the Brazilian Bishops Commission on Integral Ecology and Mining and the Global Catholic Climate Movement. It has been signed by more than 90 Catholic organizations and congregations in at least 17 countries.

“As Catholics and citizens of this world, we are extremely concerned about the ongoing destruction of the Amazon rainforest,” they wrote, citing extensive fires in the Amazon basin and the Pantanal wetlands in recent years and the deforestation of an area larger than Jamaica between August 2019 and July 2020.

These trends and threats to local communities run counter to Pope Francis’ calls to protect the environment, fight global warming and defend the rights of indigenous peoples, according to the letter.

“We would like to motivate the Brazilian government to finally respect human and environmental rights and take appropriate countermeasures to remedy the current situation. We are convinced that as a ‘Catholic voice’ we can make a useful contribution to the discussion on the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous population ”, said Tommy Piemonte, responsible for research on sustainable investments at the German bank, to EarthBeat in an email.

Catholic groups are adding their voices to those of other investors who are starting to shy away from Brazilian companies whose activities are linked to deforestation because they see biodiversity loss and climate change as risks to their investments, Piemonte said. .

Investors called on the Brazilian government to implement and strictly enforce environmental legislation, adequately implement and fund a deforestation plan, and “massively increase” funding for firefighters and firefighters’ work. the country’s environmental protection agency.

They also demanded that the government stop harassing and enter into dialogue with non-profit environmental groups, protect the territories and the rights of indigenous peoples, restore land illegally taken from indigenous and other local communities and undertake reforestation, by providing annual progress reports.

A section of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by farmers in Rio Pardo, Brazil, September 15, 2020 (CNS / Reuters / Ricardo Moraes)

A section of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by farmers in Rio Pardo, Brazil, September 15, 2020 (CNS / Reuters / Ricardo Moraes)

“We are deeply concerned about the record deforestation taking place in Brazil and its deleterious impact not only on the global climate, but also on our indigenous brothers and sisters who are deprived of their former homes and livelihoods,” said Adrian Dominican Sr. Elise Garcia, whose community signed the letter, wrote in an email to EarthBeat.

“Our 2004 vision calls on us to ‘challenge the heresies of local and global domination, exploitation and greed that privilege some, dehumanize others and ravage the Earth.’ The destruction of the Amazon and the devastation of all its inhabitants for the financial gain of a few is a heresy that cries out for justice, ”she wrote.

According to Igor Bastos, program manager of the World Catholic Climate Movement in Brazil, the government’s official response was only to acknowledge receipt of the letter. But because the efforts of others have often met with silence, Piemonte hopes that this response will be a first step towards dialogue. Still, a complicating factor may be the continued criticism by some Brazilian bishops of Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with several calls joining for his impeachment.

The letter comes just ahead of a virtual international climate summit on April 22-23, where President Joe Biden is expected to host 40 world leaders, including Bolsonaro.

The Biden administration has pledged $ 20 billion to protect the Amazon forests. A group calling themselves Climate Principals – made up of former officials from the United States Department of State, the Department of the Interior, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency – wrote a set of recommendations which will probably form the basis of American efforts.

The recommendations include various public and private financing mechanisms to provide incentives to reduce deforestation, including climate debt swaps, and the allocation of 25% of US international climate finance to “support forests and other solutions.” natural climates around the world, especially in the Amazon. . “

They are also proposing stricter measures to prevent the importation of agricultural products grown on illegally deforested land and requirements for companies to report deforestation in their supply chains. Diplomacy is a key point on their agenda, with proposals for negotiating incentives and guarantees for forest protection.

The territorial rights of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon are mentioned only once in the Amazon Protection Plan, when it calls for the help of the United States to “strengthen the land tenure and the rights of the peoples. indigenous “. The same section calls for “providing opportunities for forest-friendly economic development” and “implementing sustainable rural development strategies”.

The idea that the United States could use international development assistance to pressure Bolsonaro over Amazon issues raises red flags for church workers involved in environmental and indigenous rights in Brazil.

According to Comboni Fr. Dario Bossi of the Churches and Mining Network in Brazil, senior US officials are already meeting with officials from Brazil’s ministries of justice and environment, but information about the talks has not been made public.

“For us it is very dangerous to invest in international cooperation with a government which, so criminally over the past two years, has shown a policy opposed to the life plans of the Amazonian people,” Bossi told EarthBeat.

Bolsonaro’s Amazon policy “promoted economically predatory plans for the Amazon, the expansion of agriculture and large-scale mining. The violence increased dramatically, as well as the destruction of the Amazon rainforest,” Bossi said.

“It is very strange for us that [the U.S.] would lead to an eventual agreement with Brazil under these conditions, “he added.” Our main concern is that they cannot make plans for the Amazon without consultation and without the protagonism of indigenous peoples. “

Because the majority of the Amazon Basin is in Brazil, deforestation affects all Amazon countries there, Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa indigenous leader from Sarayaku, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, told EarthBeat. Like Bossi, she participated in the Synod for the Amazon held at the Vatican in 2019.

While praising the pressure from Catholic investors and also from the US government, especially because the Biden administration includes a high-ranking Native American, Home Secretary Deb Haaland, Gualinga warned that the implementation of everything plan should be consulted and coordinated with local forest dwellers. communities.

She said she hoped that participants at the US climate summit “will take into account that this ecosystem is vital for humanity, as well as the people who live there, and that they will begin to see the Amazonia as something important, and not just as an economy that is a source of extraction. “

Gualinga added: “This does not mean that they appropriate the Amazon, but that they respect it as it is, and that they do not promote extractive activities that are not compatible with the ecosystems, that they do not affect the rights of indigenous populations. “

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