WAU denounces Brazilian government Amazon ecocide (9-15-19)

 

Denouncement of the Brazilian government for Amazon ecocide

Crime against humanity and the planet by Amazon ecocide, causing loss of biodiversity and genocide of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities

The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the World Council of Anthropological Associations, which form the World Anthropological Union (WAU), are extremely concerned by the fires destroying the Amazon rainforest area. At a crucial moment of struggling against climate change and loss of biodiversity, several wildfires are raging around the planet. It is outrageous that rainforests, that do not naturally burn, have been set on fire on purpose in Brazil. The rainforest burns in unprecedented scale, threathening the whole planets oxygen production and global cycles of sweet water. We denounce the Brazilian government for the ecocideoccurring in the Brazilian Amazonia.

Deforestation to expand cash crops and beef cattle is short sighted and undermines the ecosystem services that forests provide. It also undermines all agricultural production in the long run by disrupting water and soil management. Hundreds of thousands of indigenous and traditional forest peoples rely on the stability of the Amazon for their livelihoods, while over 30 million urban and rural residents in the region depend on the forest’s services for water and climate stability; today they are vulnerable to respiratory ailments from smoke and exposure to agrochemicals sprayed from the air on their communities as “externalities” of regional agribusiness. These issues provide tangible awareness of the adverse impact of reliance on market forces alone to attribute value to resources and people and highlight the need to incorporate a more holistic assessment of economic development which includes ecosystem balance and inter-temporal impacts on equíty.

See the letter addressed to the International Criminal Court and the UN Secretary-General

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