Listen and Save the Amazon

Saving the vast forests and waterways of the Amazon can only be done by listening closely to the indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the "Heart of the Planet", declared leaders of the great monotheistic religions.

The spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew told scientists, environmentalists, parliamentarians and dignitaries from other faiths that the indigenous people of the Amazon Basin had lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years and can offer ways of utilizing the world's largest forest system without harming it.

Noting "we are guilty of relentless waste", the Patriarch declared “we have violated the sacred covenant between ourselves, our world, and our God,” saying it was time to incorporate elements from indigenous cultures "to restore our broken relationship with nature".

Metropolitan John of Pergamon, the revered theologian of the Orthodox faith, said "the time is gone – thank God for that – when Christian religion, in its missionary zeal, confronted other religions with a negative and exclusive spirit." Welcoming "inculturation" as the aim and method of the Christian mission, he said, "let us listen with respect to those indigenous cultures which have managed to survive the zeal of our ancestors who conquered them almost to the point of extinction".

"We must learn from indigenous cultures to respect nature and feel we are part of it", adding that in the Amazon, "we all feel the damage that our Western Christian world has done to the native peoples and their land. The ecological crisis is all a matter of culture, and in order to overcome the crisis we must be willing to learn from each other."

Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the symposium by video from the Vatican, lamented the "deep and heavy impacts on the populations" of the environmental deterioration and called on "Christians of all Confessions" to support "the populations of the Amazon region".

Nariman Gasimoglu, an Azeri author of many publications on the Koran, praised the stewardship of indigenous people and noted that Islamic text cautioned that any attempts aimed at "upsetting the environmental balance set by God, corrupting harmony established by God," will be regarded as "signs of blasphemy". Based on his readings of the Koran, he believed people will be judged by God based on "how wisely we will treat the Great Amazon River."

Lelei LeLaulu, president of the development agency Counterpart International, traveling with the Religion, Science and Environment symposium "Amazon: Source of Life" said the other religious leaders reminded people of faith that it was a sin against Creation to damage nature and urged them to support all those working to protect the mighty Amazon from further devastation by man. Man's greed and wasteful patterns of consumption, he added, were threatening the priceless ecosystems of the Amazon and the indigenous people who have lived there for thousands of years.

LeLaulu said many symposium participants urged close international attention to the plight of the indigenous and local peoples fighting to stop the devastation of the Amazon, noting several had been murdered. "Many of these people daily risk their lives and are the object of death threats," adding that some of the activists addressing the symposium have felt the need for bodyguards. He was encouraged, however, by the dialogue on the symposium between soy buyers and producers and activists and said a major announcement was forthcoming.

Counterpart International works closely with indigenous and local populations who define the tools they need to build a life of dignity for themselves and their communities while conserving the environment.

Since 1995, Religion, Science and the Environment series (RSE) has convened five symposia to study the fate of the world's main bodies of water, which cover seven-tenths of the earth's surface. These assemblies of scientists, environmentalists, policy-makers and representatives of the world's main religious faiths have established an environmental ethics movement, and have drawn global attention to the degradation of the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea, the Danube River, the Adriatic Sea, and the Baltic Sea.

RSE is committed to promoting awareness of the world's rivers and seas and to building capacities for environmental improvement. Last week, the sixth symposium sailed through the waterways of the world's largest forests, flanked by nine countries, looking at the Amazon as "the source of life".

RSE's programmes aim to raise awareness of the plight of the world's waters; to strengthen local capacities for environmental protection; to initiate schemes or institutions for environmental cooperation and education; and to catalyse projects that will benefit targeted water bodies. The organization's strategies are animated by a core belief that the analytical tools of science and the spiritual messages of religion must work in harmony if the earth's environment is to be safeguarded against further degradation.

For 41 years, Counterpart International has given people a voice in their own future through smart partnerships, offering options and access to tools for sustained social, economic and environmental development.

For further information, visit www.counterpart.org

28 July 2006