Issue of the affected will be incorporated into the multilateral debates guarantees Marina Silva

“The MAB is a very important movement in our country when speaking about climate justice, environmental racism and should be incorporated in our multilateral and bilateral agreements from now on”. That is how Marina Silva, minister of Environment, referred to the Movement of the Affected by Dams (MAB) in her speech at the “Climate Change, Agroecology and Socio-bioeconomies of the Amazon: sustainable management and new production models for regional development”. 

The activity happened last Sunday, 6, as part of the Amazon Dialogues, event that precedes the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization’s (OTCA) official meeting in Belém (Pará).  Besides Marina Silva, the plenary also counted on the participation of international authorities such as Peru and Colombia’s ministers of Environment and representatives of civil society.  The opening speech was made by Elisa Estronioli, member of MAB’s national coordination and by the Minister for Regional Development, Waldez Góes.

“Brazil can give the example on how to face climate changes and show a daring path for the world until COP 30. And we will fight for this to be a historical contribution of our country to humanity: another development, prioritizing a full ecologic transition with wealth distribution and popular participation.  And this project needs to be thought from the Amazon, by the peoples of the Amazon”, states Elisa.

In Brazil’s minister of Regional Development, Waldez Góes’ view, the success of Amazon Dialogues is decisive for holding the Amazon Summit because it opens a world debate agenda. “I am certain that in these two years and from COP 30 on, we will have a higher intensity of reflexion about our potentials, our challenges and our alternatives”, concluded the minister.

Representing civil society, participated in the plenary Ruth Chaparro (FUCAI Tríplice Fronteira), Germán Niño (Fospa Colômbia), Osver Carrasco (Fospa/MOCICC Peru) and Ima Guimarães (Repam Brasil). All of them referred to the importance of the Amazon peoples’ protagonism and the need for governments to commit to maintaining 80% of the Amazon rainforest protected until 2025.

Importance of the OTCA’s meeting

Marina Silva alerted to the need for holding the meeting of authorities that comprise the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (OTCA) due to the urgency of the climate events we are experiencing.

“When the OTCA was created it was a movement of stability, of developmentalist thought.  45 years later (we have gone through 14 years without meetings), what has changed? Climate change, ocean currents and the increase in temperature show us that we are not stabilized. Now, we need to acknowledge that we need new paradigms allied to ancestral knowledge”, she warned.

Colombia’s minster also highlighted the OTCA’s presidents’ meeting, “this is the fourth time that the presidents will gather.  And it is the first time that it is to debate climate issues. We acknowledge that the moment is urgent and critical for humanity.”