Jan. 24, 2019 – José Gregorio Mirabal, General Coordinator of COICA
The world’s economic and political elite in Davos should not be distracted by President Bolsonaro’s efforts to calm investors interested in investing in Brazil.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s attack on the peoples and forests of his country threatens all the peoples and forests of the Amazon, and puts at risk global efforts to address climate change.
The world’s economic and political leaders must warn Bolsonaro of the consequences to the market for Brazilian agricultural products, and to the entire Brazilian economy. If they fail to do so, the governments of all the Amazonian countries will follow the same path as Brazil, realizing they can now do so with impunity.
Indigenous leaders are already dying throughout the region for trying to stop the destruction of a treasure of global value in resisting climate change.
But you cannot imagine what will happen if the government of Brazil implements its intention to roll back the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their forests, in favor of implementing projects for mining, transportation, communication, and energy on indigenous territories.
The outcome of implementing President Bolsonaro’s development plans will visit upon the entire Amazon a genocide and an environmental disaster on a scale that the world has not seen before.
COICA: Coordinator of Indigenous Organization of the Amazon River Basin: http://coica.org.ec/
Rights and Resources Initiative is a global network advocating for the land and forest rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. www.rightsandresources.org