Pope urges protection of Amazon rainforest
Calls Indigenous people the ‘living memory of the mission God has entrusted to us all’
PUERTO MALDONADO, PERU— Pope Francis travelled deep into the Amazon rainforest Friday demanding an end to the relentless exploitation of its timber, gas and gold and recognition of its Indigenous peoples as the primary custodians to determine the future of “our common home.”
Speaking to a coliseum filled with Indigenous men, women and children, many of whom were barechested and wearing brightly coloured headdresses, Francis declared the Amazon the “heart of the church” and called for a threefold defence of its life, land and cultures.
Warning that Indigenous peoples are now more threatened than ever before, Francis said it was “essential” for governments and other institutions to consider tribes as legitimate partners when negotiating develop- ment and conservation projects and that their rights, cultures, languages and traditions must be respected and recovered.
“You are a living memory of the mission that God has entrusted to us all: the protection of our common home,” the pope said.
After his speech, an Indigenous man in a wheelchair who was left paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police during a protest placed a headdress of red and yellow feathers on the pope’s head and a necklace of native beads around his neck.
Francis’ trip to the Amazon comes as the expansion of illegal gold mining and farming as well as new roads and dams have turned thousands of acres of once-lush green forest into barren, contaminated wasteland. Francis has previously called on world leaders to protect the Amazon, likening it to one of the “lungs of our planet.”
He is also using the trip to set the stage for a big church meeting next year on the Amazon and the Indigenous peoples who reside there.