SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Due to the slow response to the fast-spreading contamination by COVID-19 by the governments of the countries that make up the Amazon region, an Amazon non-governmental group, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) launched on Wednesday an emergency fund campaign to raise money to help the indigenous groups in the region.
“COICA has called on governments, cooperation agencies, international organizations, foundations and citizens to donate to the Amazon Emergency Fund. This fund has been created with the aim of raising and channeling resources to indigenous communities and grassroots organizations who face the COVID-19 emergency in the entire Amazon basin,” says the group which has representatives from the nine countries that make up the Amazon basin.
In response to the urgent, immediate and growing threats to the Amazon and its people, NGOs, donors, advisors, as well as international, national and local funds, are coordinating and collaborating to raise and channel funds to indigenous and forest communities
“We are pooling resources and sharing the work of raising and directing rapid response grants to indigenous and forest communities and grassroots organizations in the Amazon who have called upon us to show our solidarity during this emergency,” say coordinators.
These groups are seeking to raise more than 3 million dollars within fifteen days, and 5 million dollars within 60 days. The funds will be used to provide food, medicine, protective gear, emergency communication, evacuation, protection and security against impending intrusions.
The fund, which will later expand its goal to a second phase, will also seek to strengthen the food sovereignty and community resilience of indigenous peoples.
“If the governments of the region are not going to help, let the international community do so,” said Jose Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, general coordinator of COICA and a member of the Wakuenai Kurripaco people in Venezuela.
“We will no longer wait for our governments (to act). Our indigenous populations need protection, food; we are asking the world for support,” added Mirabal during Wednesday’s virtual press conference to announce the campaign.
According to officials, 34 million people live in the Amazon region, accounting for 11 percent of the population of the Amazon countries. In all, there are 420 different indigenous tribes, speaking 86 languages and 650 dialects. COICA estimates that more than nine percent of the Amazon population (more than 3 million) is made up of indigenous peoples.
According to the entities involved in the campaign, more than 30,000 people living in the region have tested positive for Covid-19 and 1,600 have died due to the virus of which 33 were indigenous. Mirabal says that 180 of the 600 indigenous communities have registered at least one member with the virus.
“Covid-19 does not discriminate. You can be rich, you can be poor. The virus does not choose social classes,” said Elcio Machineri, president of Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).
Now these peoples of the forest are looking for international help, especially from the United States and Europe.
“Much of the United States, especially the south, center, and northwest, benefits from agricultural and seasonal rains, which come from the Amazon. And the science has been clear: protecting indigenous peoples is protecting the Amazon, so helping them right now is helping them in the medium and long term,” said Julio César López, president of OPIAC and a native of the Inga people in Colombia.
The Amazon Emergency Fund will be fiscally coordinated by the Rainforest Foundation U.S., and decisions about its distribution will be established by the fund’s Governing Council which will be made up of indigenous leaders from COICA and its member organizations, representatives of participating NGOS, donors, and advisors who together have formed the Founding Solidarity Circle.
According to the Rainforest Foundation US spokesperson, Suzanne Pelletier, 100 percent of the resources collected during the campaign will be allocated to Amazon indigenous communities. “We will wire the funds directly to the organizations’ bank account. The funds will not only help indigenous populations but will help humanity.”
Calling them the Guardians of the Forest, Pelletier says that decimation of these populations now with Covid-19, may have serious consequences for the world’s environment in the future. “This is not only a humanitarian emergency but also an environmental emergency. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon are the last line of defense against the destruction of the forest and our greatest hope in mitigating the effects of climate change.”
“The Amazon has thirty percent of the biodiversity and 70 percent of the oxygen on the planet, but its real importance lies in the interrelation that the native peoples have with the forest, which ensures the life of all. If the interrelation which has guaranteed a large part of ecological stability is not taken care of, the planet will suffer a collapse of climate, with a very difficult return,” adds Tabea Casique Coronado, education coordinator of COICA and leader of the Ashéninka people in Peru.
On Sunday famed Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado, released a video on his Instagram and sent an open letter to Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, asking the Brazilian government to help the indigenous populations of the Amazon.
“The indigenous peoples of Brazil face a serious threat to their own survival with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says the letter, which was followed by an online petition. As of Thursday night, the petition had already obtained more than 227,000 signatures.
“Five centuries ago, these ethnic groups were decimated by diseases brought by European colonists,” says the letter, signed not only by Salgado but international celebrities, including Paul McCartney, Brad Pitt and Madonna.
“Today, with this new plague spreading all over Brazil…they (indigenous) may disappear completely, since there is no way to combat COVID-19,” the letter says.
Non-governmental groups that work with the indigenous of the region are extremely concerned with what the virus can do if it is becomes widespread within these communities.
“The possibility of an ethno-genocide is real,” warns Leila Salazar-Lopes, Amazon Watch’s executive director.