Indigenous Peoples Sustain - Economy and Ecosystems

Author

Ariana Parra

Date Published

Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brazil

Guardians of the Living Earth



The Earth is speaking, and Indigenous Peoples have never stopped listening.


They are the guardians of 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity.


Their care sustains not only the forests but the very balance of life itself.
What science measures in carbon and climate, ancestral wisdom understands as relationship and reverence.


Across the Amazon, Indigenous leaders remind the world that conservation is not a policy, it is a way of being.


Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon region attended the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Their voices rose in unity to invite an economy in harmony with the Earth, one that values the standing forest not as a resource, but as a being with a soul.


“Indigenous territories are the best preserved in the Amazon because we make respectful use of our territory and natural resources.”


 —Fany Kuiru, General Coordinator, Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)



Sustainability is born from reciprocity, and true development begins when humanity once again listens to the wisdom of the land.


At the World Economic Forum, discussions about valuing the standing forest echoed a deeper truth:


“While big companies talk about value, for us, that whole ecosystem, which is a living thing, is priceless.”
— Uyunkar Peas Nampichkai, President of the Board of Directors, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance


Weaving together science, economy, and spirit in a single language, we recognize nature not as a resource to be managed, but as a sacred system to be remembered.


Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, urged the world to recognize the invisible work of ecosystems.

“Nature performs miracles that no technology could ever replicate — its service is incalculable,” she said.



The Amazon rainforest produces 20 billion tons of water every day.


Between 50% and 75% of that water is released into the atmosphere as vapor, creating the so-called “flying rivers” that sustain the rainfall patterns upon which 75% of South America’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) depends.


To pump that same amount of water would require 50,000 Itaipú-sized dams, revealing the immeasurable value of the forest’s natural ecosystem services.

Monocultures are detrimental to the environment, while crop diversification preserves the resilience of the ecosystem.

“We are the people who still speak the language of the water, the earth, the air, the stars, the animals, the forest, and all of Creation. We do not just protect nature; we are nature itself.”
— Chief Nixiwaka Yawanawá


His words remind us that protecting nature is not an act of charity, but of kinship.


This is not merely a struggle for the Amazon, it is a call to renew human consciousness.
To heal the forest is to heal ourselves.
To defend the sacred is to defend the future.


Forests managed by Indigenous Peoples are the best preserved in the Amazon due to their respectful stewardship of land and natural resources.


Initiatives such as Amazonia Forever, the World Economic Forum’s Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and Leadership Network are steps toward rebalancing human progress with planetary wisdom. But as the Amazonian leaders reminded us in Davos, true restoration will not emerge solely from technology, it will come from remembering our spiritual covenant with the Earth.


This is the awakening of a living alliance:
where ancestral guardians and modern science meet, where economy bows to ecology, and where humanity learns (or remembers) to be part of the forest, not apart from it.


The message rising from the Amazon is clear:
The forest is alive.
And as long as its guardians stand, so will hope.




Read the World Economic Forum article here: 

Lessons from Indigenous leaders to protect the Amazon rainforest

hoja y agua

🅭Wallace castro, Brazil