Amazon Dialogues: movements release collective letter with demands aimed at heads of state

By Mariana Castro
From Brasil de Fato | Imperatriz (Brazil)

Social movements and entities from all the countries that make up the Amazon, the largest tropical forest in the world, will participate, from July 4th to 8th, in the Amazon Dialogues, in Belém (Pará state). The event aims to reflect and build collective proposals for the preservation of the biome, territories and peoples, and deliver such proposals to heads of state during COP-30.

With nearly 20,000 participants and an extensive program of debates, the meeting reflected on alternatives for thinking about the future of the Amazon from a vision that prioritizes science, technology, innovation and academic research, as well as considering energy transition, mining and oil exploration. 

Charles Trocate, from Via Campesina and from the leadership of the Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining (MAM), denounced that concessions for the implementation of large enterprises have condemned the Amazonian population. He participated in plenary 3, which had the theme “How to think about the Amazon for the future based on science, technology, innovation and academic research, energy transition, mining and oil exploration.”

“Although it is valid to build these spaces for thinking and acting, the solution is in general terms what the Sun is to the Earth. A change in habits is needed, where the greatest effort does not fall on the Amazonians to make concessions that make no sense to the dilemmas of yesteryear”, he explains.

Meeting gathers more than twenty thousand people among social movements, entities and researchers around the Amazon. Photo: Dafiny Carvalho

The Kandir Law (Supplementary Law No. 87/1996) was criticized at the event. Movements warn of billionaire losses in revenues from mining activity. The law deals with the taxes of the Brazilian states and the Federal District regarding the circulation of goods and services.

“It is not possible to measure the development of the Amazon and the Amazon populations, in the Brazilian case, with the maintenance of the Kandir Law and the non-taxation of the super profits of the great mining companies and the enterprises that intensively use natural resources, geologies, water and massive amounts of forests, which detract from the meaning of the regional economy”, denounces Trocate.

Following the reflections arising from the discussion, outside the debate plenary, movements denounced to those present at the Amazon Dialogues the impacts caused by oil exploration, warning of the global climate emergency.

Protests draw the attention of heads of state, on the eve of COP-30. Photo: Vinícios Cabano

The debate was attended by the Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, in addition to representatives from Bolivia and Ecuador, Amazonian countries that also reinforced the mission of preserving the forest and denounced the impacts of mining and oil exploration in their territories.

Edited by: Nadini Lopes e Thalita Pires
Translated by: Lucas Peresin