Save the Amazon

Ahead of the assembly of international governments at the COP26 climate conference held in Scotland, the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin have issued a pressing message that the 8.4 million kilometres of the Amazon must be urgently protected.

Charged with representing the 3.5 million inhabitants of the Amazon basin, head of the organisation COICA, Gregorio Mirabal outlines why the call for collaboration has been necessary.

Gregorio Mirabal: "We are not realising that human beings have become the worst enemy of nature and of life itself. So we are simply not the best, but we have shown that we can help the world and we need everyone's help."

COICA's proposal to the World Congress on Protected Areas gave the Amazon's indigenous peoples a voice. Aiming to get 80 percent of the Amazon protected, the proposal was duly accepted.

Meeting that target would ensure future generations would be able to live amidst the Amazon's flourishing array of flora and fauna, a utopia which Mirabal envisages.

Gregorio Mirabal: "In 2050, our children will be able to bathe in this river, they will be able to see what is here, they will be able to see the trees, the biodiversity, they will be able to see those macaws slowly flying, and we will be able to drink our chicha as you have seen. This is the scenario that we are offering to the world if you help us protect 80 percent of the Amazon."

Hindering this vision of a protected Amazon is the apparent ambivalence of international governments. Mirabal cites corruption and a lack of motivation as key political obstacles.

Gregorio Mirabal: "At the moment the worst danger is the lack of political will of our governments and this goes hand in hand with corruption. If there is money, and there is a lot of money promised for conservation, for this to remain healthy, but it does not arrive."

Regarded as the lungs of the planet, the Amazon rainforest encompasses a vast area but with 200,000 acres being incinerated or wiped out on a daily basis, it is no exaggeration to fear that if deforestation reaches 20 percent, the results will be irreversible. It's touch and go for the future of the Amazon.

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