350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

View this email in your browser

“This escalation of pandemics is a symptom of a planet that needs to heal, in which it is urgent to re-establish harmony between human beings and nature, between individuals and their families, between society and the state, between nations and the planet.”
– World Assembly for the Amazon

Dear Jeanne,

From the old growth primary forests in British Columbia to the intact boreal and to the Amazon rainforest across the globe, communities are rising up to protect forests from corporate greed and irreparable damage. There’s no doubt that forests are our best defence against the continued escalating threat of climate change, and that’s exactly why Indigenous communities have been calling for urgent action to save the Amazon.

With more than 45% of the intact parts of the Amazon in Indigenous governed territories, a study by the United Nations found that returning the ancestral lands of Amazonian Indigenous people back to their stewardship is the best way to preserve the rainforest and combat climate change.¹

For many communities, the Amazon is a source of life. But in recent years – due to extractive industries like mining, agriculture, and oil and gas, rainforest communities are facing major health crises and criminalization for defending their homes.

That’s why Amazonian communities have launched a new platform, “World Assembly for the Amazon,” with a vision for restoring and protecting the rainforest. The Assembly’s “Life Plan,” calls on the world to share and join the movement to push action on the following five points.

1. 1. Solidarity and urgent action to face the health care emergency in the Amazon. Immediate relief action in response to the health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. 1. Reprieve the Amazon’s point of no return. Take action to immediately stop deforestation and degradation of the region by creating sustainable local economies and defending the self-determination and sovereignty of the Indigenous people.

1. 1. Achieve climate and environmental justice. Work in solidarity with Indigenous peoples to cut emissions and invest in capacity building of local communities.

1. 1. Promote territorial self-government and inclusive governance.Strengthen Indigenous and Amazonian people’s autonomy and territorial self-government.

1. Agitate a global mobilization to save the Amazon. Drive the issue of the Amazon to the international stage and call for countries, communities and organizations to endorse the Life Plan.

Read the full Life Plan here, and if you’re part of an organization, you can sign up to endorse it.

The Amazon is nothing short of magical. It’s time for the world to answer the calls of the Amazonian communities. Will you amplify the Life Plan on social media in support of the Assembly’s vision?

Click here to share on Instagram. Or if you’re not social media, forward this email to five of your friends.

There has never been a more urgent and timely call to action to protect this biodiverse haven. The Stand.earth community has used our collective power to protect millions of acres of forests, shifted corporate policies, and successfully mobilized to stop new oil & gas projects. I know together, we can continue to push the envelope for stronger climate action.

Thank you for standing up forests all around the world,

Alicia Guzman
Amazon Advisor
Stand.earth

¹https://www.filac.org/indigenous-lands-contain-nearly-half-of-the-amazons-intact-forest/