From Amazon Leaders to World Leaders: We Call for an Ambitious Post-2020 Agreement that makes peace with our Mother Earth
 
*** Leaders from the Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA) present a proposal for the Amazon and call for a new global post-2020 agreement aimed at restoring and protecting half of our Mother Earth and managing the rest in harmony with her. ***

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (November 21, 2018). The Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA) presented a proposal for the Amazon to the 14th UN Biodiversity Conference and called on world governments to follow the example of indigenous leadership and create consensus behind an ambitious agreement that ensures ecological stability and security for this and future generations.
 
The COICA is also concerned by the remarks made by Brazil’s President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro regarding indigenous communities and made an urgent call to to respect indigenous rights, and the integrity of indigenous territories and international conventions on biodiversity and climate change, as well as other agreements such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
 
1. INTERCONNECTIVITY OF THE AMAZON: A PROPOSAL FOR UNITY
 
COICA will present to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity, governments and NGOs the “Bogota Declaration”, which describes the principles and joint vision of the indigenous confederations to protect the Amazon rainforest using a traditional and holistic perspective. The area included in this interconnection vision is the size of Mexico.
 
The declaration resulted from the COICA summit held last August in Bogota with indigenous leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela, representing over 400 nations. At the summit, they discussed alternatives based on ancestral knowledge on how to connect indigenous territories to preserve close to 200 million hectares of tropical rainforest, by connecting the Andes, Amazon and the Atlantic region.
 
In the declaration, the indigenous delegations invite States and other entities to “join efforts to build public awareness strategies, recognizing the importance of this corridor as a first step to guaranteeing the existence of all forms of life on the Planet” and to “weave alliances and commitments to promote, protect and make visible” the interconnectivity of the Andes-Amazon-Atlantic region, its biodiversity, its cultures and sacredness of the territory” (1).
 
Tuntiak Katan, Vice President of COICA (Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin), before the negotiations at the CBD COP 14 in Egypt stated: “Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the solution to the devastation of our ecosystems and climate change in the Amazon and the rest of the world. The success of policies to mitigate climate change and promote the restoration of rainforests will depend on safe tenancy of communal lands. 65% of the world’s lands are indigenous territories, but only 10% are legalized. Thus, guaranteeing indigenous territorial rights is an inexpensive and effective way of reducing carbon emissions and increasing natural areas. Ensuring possession of community rainforests is a low cost-high benefit investment to protect our Mother Earth and stop extinctions.”
 
2. TOWARDS A GLOBAL POST-2020 AGREEMENT ADDRESSED AT RESTORING AND PROTECTING HALF OF OUR MOTHER EARTH AND MANAGING THE REST IN HARMONY.
 
COICA is also present at Sharm El Sheikh to start bilateral negotiations with different actors in the quest for an ambitious and fair agreement for 2020. COICA wishes to invite all world leaders to work alongside indigenous leaders in the goal of restoring and protecting at least half of the planet by 2050; COICA also wishes to promote a constructive dialogue with the governments of the Amazon region to prevent a terminal crisis of  Earth’s largest forest.
 
Indigenous leaders have stated that any post-2020 agreement must include the active participation of indigenous peoples since their territories are home to 80% of biodiversity and 24% of forest carbon stocks, and must also ensure funds for local communities. They also made clear that they are willing to share their traditional knowledge and wisdom with any government that is genuinely open to listening about concrete experiences from the ground.
 
COICA wants to open dialogue with actors who support a common goal to protect and restore half of the planet before 2050. This goal would ensure restoration of the habitats and would provide a minimum base of protected ecosystems to prevent a climate change crisis and the loss of biodiversity. Renowned scientists and conservation experts believe in the need to protect 50% while the other 50% is sustainably managed. Scientists have discovered that if we protect 50% of the planet from human exploitation (whether from extracting activities such as mining and logging, deforestation for monoculture, or oil exploration), the Earth’s ecosystems could stabilize and regenerate themselves.
 
Juan Carlos Jintiach, Technical Coordinator for Climate Change and Biodiversity, said:  “The scope for action concerning biodiversity must not be alien to the decisions already included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, but we need to go much further for our vision as indigenous peoples by 2050 to be coherent with our own demands and realities at the local, national and international level. To do that, we should ensure that at least half of our Earth is protected and the other half is sustainably managed. These must not exclude gender and youth focus, or the synergy between people, culture and Nature.”
 
3. A CALL TO BOLSONARO: CAUTION, RESPECT FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS
 
COICA wishes to express its deep concern for the declarations made during President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign concerning his environmental policy and his approach to indigenous issues.
 
COICA wishes to remind Bolsonaro that Brazil has national and international obligations to guarantee the territorial rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, to protect indigenous peoples and local communities, and to respect the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples and communities; and wants to advise that Brazil’s international credibility will depend on its actions in the environmental and indigenous sphere. COICA will mobilize as much international solidarity as necessary to protect Brazil’s indigenous peoples and communities.
 
Irvin Ristie, Youth representative of the COICA at the CBD COP 14 in Egypt, said: “Bolsonaro’s declarations are concerning because they feed a disturbing tendency in different parts of the world, where almost 3/4 of environmental defenders assassinated in 2017 were indigenous leaders; where opposing agroindustry is the main cause for assassination of our leaders worldwide; and where imposing projects onto communities without their free, prior and informed consent is at the root of all attacks on indigenous and community leaders. Likewise, we see that it is increasingly frequent for indigenous peoples and communities to face costly and complicated processes to legalize their lands, while corporations obtain licenses with ease. Because of this and based on the tone used in Brazil’s past election campaign, we call upon Bolsonaro to be prudent and fully respect the law, and in particular to ensure respect for the rights of our brothers and sisters in Brazil, ensuring their safety and physical integrity.”
 
COICA is an indigenous organization with international convergence that works towards promoting, protecting and ensuring the safety of indigenous peoples by defending their way of life, their principles, and their social, spiritual, and cultural values. Our purpose is to defend life and the Amazon, as a seed on Earth, and to preserve the forests to ensure present and future generations exist on a living, thriving planet.
 
Note to the Editor: (1) a copy of the Bogota declaration is available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Please write to mvsanchezno@gmail.com  or comunicacionconfeniae@gmail.com