Words by Smiley Team
At the forefront of climate activism, indigenous people set the world an example yet again this Sunday, when groups urged global leaders to protect 80% of the Amazon basin by 2025. To achieve their “Amazonia80x2025” goal, they called for ambitious action to end deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest and previous carbon sink.
The Amazonian delegates traveled to Marseille for a nine-day conference to announce their campaign to an audience of thousands of officials, scientists and activists.
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Among them was José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, lead coordinator of the indigenous umbrella group, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA). "We invite the global community to join us to reverse the destruction of our home and by doing so safeguard the future of the planet," he told Reuters.
This is the first time in the conference’s 70-year history that indigenous organisations can vote alongside government agencies and national or international NGOs.
Two months ago the world discovered that the Amazon rainforest, once a vital carbon sink, had started emitting more CO2 than it absorbed. Meanwhile, less than 50% of the Amazon basin is protected by authorities or indigenous stewards.
In Brazil the situation is particularly precarious since the election of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, with deforestation reaching a 12-year high under his rule.
[Read more: Indigenous Communities and Green Groups Unite to Protect Forests in Latin America]
The Marseille conference is the most recent ‘World Conservation Congress’, held every four years by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It brings together thousands of governments and researchers to discuss how to attune humanity to the needs of nature.
Representing more than 2 million indigenous people across nine Amazonian nations, COICA hopes the congress will endorse its "Amazonia80x2025" declaration.
Their campaign launched ahead of the United Nations talks on biodiversity in Kunming, China in 2022. They hope the conference members will vote in support of “Amazonia80x2025”, giving it a greater chance of success at the United Nation talks, where leaders will set goals to protect biodiversity over the next decade.
Get in touch with COICA to find out how you can support here.
