Amazon: The voices of those fighting and resisting the devastation of the green lung

Karina Godoy

Madrid (EFEverde).- "Amazon, an open wound in the heart of the world" is the title of the documentary by the organization Manos Unidas, which reflects the denunciations of representatives from indigenous communities in Brazil regarding deforestation and illegal mining in one of the planet's main lungs. Isolation due to precarious access roads and a lack of basic services are also a reality in this territory.

In this context, the organization, through its allied partners in the region, works to defend the human rights of communities. In the audiovisual material, local leaders describe the various threats facing the population.

Illegal mining

While minerals are traded on the stock exchange, the degradation of natural resources is recorded at the extraction site, says Carlos Vicente Alcone, head of Manos Unidas in Brazil.

"Illegal gold mining is one of the most devastating forms of mining that is devastating the Amazon in various ways," he says.

Gold mining is carried out using two main methods. Alluvial mining involves excavating riverbeds and using mercury. Land mining, according to Alcone, is more damaging, as it lacks the limitations of water and uses heavy machinery that requires a large amount of energy and chemicals.

“The first thing mining does is divide the organization. They know exactly who the opposing leaders are and neutralize them, either by offering them cash or by threatening them. And when mining starts to operate, what they do is co-opt. They give the leaders' children jobs as night watchmen, loaders, whatever, and they start giving them alcohol,” Alcone says.

Deforestation

The felling of noble trees to make fine furniture and the indiscriminate felling of trees for agricultural and livestock development are the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon.

"The Amazon is prepared to recycle life in a system that has worked for millennia, but with the felling of trees, there is no longer that sponge that absorbs water," says the organization's representative in Brazil.

The overcrowding of pigs and cattle indicates that it generates a concentration of gases in a space where there were previously no animals. "At first, it may generate fertilization, but later it becomes contamination," says Carlos Vicente Alcone, head of Manos Unidas in Brazil .

Education and health

Education is one of the main challenges in the region. Community leaders question the nation-state education model.

“There is an approved indigenous curriculum, but in practice what they receive are teaching materials left over from urban schools, which are already outdated. They send them to the villages and with that the teacher has to first teach content that is from the urban context, but also make the effort to do so in the local language, because not all children speak Portuguese in indigenous communities. They begin to study in their own language and little by little the teacher, without any specific methodology, introduces Portuguese,” Alcone describes.

Francesc Comellés, Minister of the Indigenous Council CIMI, which works with Manos Unidas, believes that each community has the right to a distinct, bilingual education. He says this is a challenge given the lack of political will.

In some communities, Manos Unidas has intervened by training a local teacher to teach children.

People in the villages also lament the precarious healthcare system, which has even claimed lives due to the lack of adequate coverage and the isolation they face. At local health centers, they report that they only have painkillers, but for more complex interventions, they need to be transported by air or river, and for several hours.

Community work

Amidst the open wounds of the territory, non-governmental organizations are working to fill the gap in the absence of government support.

From the CIM, Comellés indicates that they work with different communities. “We have about 15 teams distributed across Amazonas and Roraima. Our work is based on being in the village with them, providing political training so they know their rights. If they don't know their rights, they don't know where to complain,” comments the missionary from the CIMI Indigenous Council.

Representatives of various indigenous communities carry out constant mobilizations in places where they gain visibility, such as Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, to demand and assert their rights, including the protection of their land.

“Hope cannot be lost, and that's why collaboration among everyone is essential: local agents, outsiders, and development agencies. We must dream of a new world that is possible. It's difficult, but we must fight for it,” declares Father Javier, a Xaverian missionary in the Prelature of Alto Solimões in Brazil.

The president of Manos Unidas, Cecilia Pilar Gracia, who traveled to the Amazon with a technical team, stated: “There are many people like Manos Unidas who want to help alleviate the needs of indigenous peoples, eradicate them, and enable them to live in harmony as they wish, in absolute harmony with nature. We ended this trip with a sense of alarm, but at the same time with a certain serenity.”

“Balance is possible. And we see hope in the future. There is always hope because nature knows how to heal itself, to take care of itself; it just needs a chance. That chance could be the human factor that Manos Unidas speaks of,” concludes Alone.

Manos Unidas allocated its record €48 million to 575 projects in 2024.