“Be Good to Us to Help The Forest”, Indigenous Tribes Ask Amazon Countries

Leaders in the Amazon – including the presidents of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru – have joined the indigenous peoples at a summit held in Leticia, Colombia to sign a conservation pact focused on protecting the rainforest.

The regional leaders are driven to fight deforestation to curb global warming emissions through the trees’ absorption of carbon dioxide. Indigenous groups, however, have been protecting the forests for thousands of years, and their culture and survival depend on their spiritual relationship with the rainforest.

“This isn’t about a four-year term as president. This is forever,” says Bombaire from the Muri tribe.

Indigenous tribes, whose lands face much lower deforestation rates than other regions, have warned that their knowledge and involvement is essential for this pact to prove successful.

“The very best that we have to protect these forests is to protect the rights of the people who have been protecting them for centuries,” says Laurel Sutherlin, a spokesman for the Rainforest Action Network, a U.S.-based campaign group.

Indigenous lawyer Barnabi Palma adds, “Indigenous people are a portal of knowledge, which has sustained us for millennia and allowed the Amazon to survive. As indigenous groups, we have a responsibility to show that our knowledge can contribute to humanity.”