By Sílvio Marques SJ | Director SARES - Manaus, Brazil

On 9 August, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, it is imperative to shed some light on the plight and resilience of Indigenous Peoples, particularly those living in the Amazon and Congolese rainforests. Despite the important role the Indigenous Peoples play in preserving their ecosystems, they are threatened by economic activities including agribusiness, deforestation and mining. This article by Sílvio Marques, SJ, Director of the Amazonian Service of Action, Reflection, and Socio-environmental Education (SARES), shines the light on the myriad challenges the Indigenous peoples face and highlights their unwavering resistance to protect their lands, cultures and way of life.

The Amazon and Congolese rainforests constitute the largest tropical forest complex on the planet. They are home to a great diversity of native peoples with their ancestral languages, traditions, and cultures. However, these people are increasingly suffering violations that threaten their existence.

In today’s Amazonia, the economic model that favours the expansion of uncontrolled productive activities such as soybean and cotton monoculture agribusiness, indiscriminate deforestation and the expansion of the cattle frontier, the promotion of large-scale mining activities and the contamination of water sources has led to the destruction of vast areas, most of which are traditional Indigenous territories. Thus, not only is the sacred territory of these peoples destroyed and affected, but the subsistence systems on which they depend for food, medicine, housing, religion and culture are irreparably disrupted.

The Amazon plays a crucial role in regulating the world’s climate, but environmental changes such as deforestation and changing rainfall patterns threaten this vital ecosystem. For indigenous peoples, climate change is a direct threat to their traditional way of life.

Indigenous communities in the Amazon also face external pressures from encroachment by land grabbers, loggers and miners. These activities, which lack legal backing, lead to violent conflicts, massacres and threats to the lives of indigenous leaders and those who dedicate their lives to the cause of defending their rights and territories. The absence of the state or the ineffectiveness of civil rights protection authorities increases the vulnerability of indigenous peoples who are condemned to suffer abuses and violations. In the political sphere, despite advances in the legal recognition of indigenous rights, their practical implementation remains a major challenge.

Among the indigenous populations, the most vulnerable are the people in voluntary isolation (Pope Francis, Puerto Maldonado, Peru, 2018). These are groups that have fled to the upper part of the rivers and deep jungles, far from the “civilized” world, to defend themselves from the violence of the ecocidal economic model imposed on the region. There are 200 references to people in voluntary isolation in the Amazon (cf. CIMI), making the Amazon region the world’s area with the most significant number of human groups without contact with the West.

Despite these challenges, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon continue to resist, mobilizing to defend their rights and protect their lands and identity. “Resist to exist” is the strategy. We are convinced, as Pope Francis recalled in his meeting with the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in 2018 (Peru), that they are fundamental interlocutors in finding new ways to care for our common home.