The general coordination of the international Antropocênica series, motivated by the presentations and dialogues at the second meeting of the series, recently concluded in Santarém, Pará, Brazil (August / September 2023), with the support of members of the scientific committee and participants in the event and all other people who sign this letter, make public our position regarding the ongoing destruction of what we call the synthesis territory of the Anthropocene: the Amazonia.
We know from archaeology that the history of human presence in the Amazon rainforest dates back more than 12,000 years. Throughout this history, the indigenous people and the traditional communities have developed a profoundly harmonious coexistence with the forest and its beings, which is essential to their way of life.
However, destructive human actions, promoted by invaders, are spreading more and more: the way these people relate to the forest, its beings and the indigenous and traditional communities is characterized by extreme violence, explicit in the current scenario of degradation of the biome and in the entrenched presence of criminal factions that operate on various fronts of economic exploitation in this vast territory.
The seriousness of the problem, as Earth System science has long warned, is simple to understand: predatory activities in multiple vectors of action in the Amazonia region – with a strong influence of capital in demands that transcend borders – have great impact on the process of rupture of this complex system, leading to an irreparable destruction of the Amazonia, with impacts felt on a planetary scale.
The direct consequences of the impacts of this disruption of the biome, which, due to its size, directly influences the dynamics of the biosphere, are motivated by predatory and extractive economic interests and will make up an integral contribution to the installation of a widespread dystopian scenario, with the mass extinction of species and the tragedy of a civilization that has distanced itself from nature by extracting everything from it to be produced and consumed in an urban way of life.
The evidence of recklessness is clearly exposed in the following: deforestation, fires, the opening up of land for pastures, hydroelectric dams, clandestine mining operations, monocultures of exogenous plants, the poisoning of water and land, violence against native and traditional peoples, as well as the current delirium in promoting oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon river. It all paints a very stark picture for the near future.
We call on Brazil to show and demonstrate its capacity to participate in the construction of a world with respect and responsibility towards future generations - human and non-human - and to assume the possibility of its being a country with the capacity for protecting its natural and cultural dimension in a non-predatory manner; and that the three branches of the Federative Republic of Brazil act in harmony to recognise, ensure and strengthen rights that promote a biodiverse and multi-ethnic nation, including the ancestral knowledge that has so much to teach us on this subject.
We stand united in the social struggles and rights of the original and traditional peoples who inhabit the Amazonia.
We denounce the economic interests that violate the Earth, which manifest themselves with significant impact on the Amazonia and are exercised and promoted through the spread of various forms of violence, the limit or end results of which is the death of human and non-human communities in a context of widespread environmental degradation, evident in the poisoning of Amazonian rivers by mercury, the devastation of flora and fauna by fires, among other forms of degradation resulting from predatory economic exploitation.
In the face of this scenario, as citizens of the World, we call on Brazil, as a signatory to treaties and conventions in defence of human rights and the environment, to make a concrete response to the scale of the problems that are worsening day by day.
With all these considerations, and in the urgent need for effective action, we specifically call for:
1) the immediate demarcation and titling of the indigenous lands and the quilombola territories.
2) the inclusion of the full protection of Nature in the Brazilian Constitution, as is the case in other South American countries such as Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile, with the participation of native and traditional peoples, including ancestral knowledge in education and decision-making about Nature.
October 2023
General coordination, members of the scientific committee and participants in the Anthropocene series
[ The list of signatures is available at https://www.antropocenica.ooo/carta-aberta/assinaturas and the names of those who have signed the document are updated weekly. ]
