‘WE ARE PROTECTORS OF THE AMAZON’

Bolsonaro government is inciting violence against the indigenous people

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE have been warning for decades about the violations we have suffered everywhere in Brazil.Predatory action by agri-business loggers, miners and ranchers, who have a powerful lobby in the National Congress with over 200 deputies under their influence,are deepening terribly under the anti-indigenous Jair Bolsonaro government, which normalises, incites and empowers violence against the environment and against us.

The co-relation between deforestation and fire is intrinsic. The 10 municipalities in the Amazon region, that have been most affected by the fire represent 43 per cent of deforestation detected in July.The records are higher in the states of Acre,Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Roraima, where there is a significant population of our people. It is also in this region that a large number of the last uncontacted people from Brazil live.

We know that indigenous territories are the most preserved in the world. In the Brazilian Amazon, which provides 5.2 billion tonnes of water per day, communities protect 27 per cent of the forest.They are the real barriers against logging and greed of Brazilian agri-business.In Brazil,contrary to what is said,we are forced to guard our territories at our own risk.We are putting our bodies and lives at the service of maintaining our territories.

We need the solidarity of national and international public opinion, the support of the Brazilian institutions and also cooperation of international courts to ensure justice and protection to the indigenous people of Brazil, as we have recently experienced with the assassination of Chief Emirá Wajãpi, in Amapá.

The lives of indigenous peoples depend on this fight. But it is not only our lives.The lives of future generations and our survival as a species depends on this collective effort to generate new models of development.We have no plan B,so this fight is urgent.

(Sônia Guajajara is a Brazilian environmental

and indigenous activist and politician)