Green Shoots 5: Ever-Widening Circles of Response to Environmental Threat

Hermann Bellinghausen reports on Mexico's indigenous peoples for La Jornada. Several days ago, his article "Where the Living Jungle Lives" appeared. The story of an outsider's first visit to the community, "Sarayaku: A Journey Into the Heart of the Resistance", includes details and photos that enrich Sarayaku, the Kichwa community described by Bellinghausen. Links to relevant articles are provided below this translation.

"Where the Living Jungle Lives"

Hermann Bellinghausen,

La Jornada, 10/5/2015

One afternoon late in 2011, while sharing manioc beer under an umbrella a few yards from the Bobonaza River [flows into the Amazon] in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, José Gualinga wondered, What is the "living forest" (Kawsak Sacha in Kichwa, or Quechua). Here's how he answered his own question:

"A space of beings where we people elevate our physical, psychological and psychic emotions. For example, in August most of the people move into the jungle, not in a community, but into the jungle, in little houses deep in the interior. There the children, women, everyone, re-create, pick up their life. They go to see the Masanga, the mysteries. This strengthens you and makes brotherhood, unity and respect for the natural world" (Ojarasca, October 2011).

At that time, Gualinga presided over Sarayaku's Governing Council. Before and after, he has taken on various responsibilities representing his people in national organizations and before the world. The Sarayaku defeated an oil company and the government of Rafael Correa himself. They are living proof that it can be done. Bearing the voice of his people, Gualinga has traveled. He does not ignore the essentials of the global environment, or the poisonous honeys of the "first world" or the stinky breath of the leadership circles in Quito [Ecuador], but he knows that in his place life is better without poisons and in harmony with the natural world.

The Kichwas of Sarayaku pulled themselves together. They let the land speak, and they live as she says:

"It is sacred territory, one must not destroy it. The living jungle is also the place where the shamans and elders transmit their knowledge—the science of the jungle, how to know the trees, plants, fish, animals, orient yourself, dream, have visions. This is our science, the relationship with this world. A language of communication with the animals."

Gualinga spoke of the Amazonian indigenous project that goes against the grain of the capitalism that has historically ignored the indigenous people and their existential choices. It is long-term; it is for today and for when we die. This future defines the present. Not the opposite, like the non-neoliberal project that subjects the future to the present. Gualinga confided:

"This proposal that all nationalities of the center-south Amazon region are developing—the Kichwa territory is one border, and the territory extends all the way to the Achuar and Shuar territory. The indigenous territory is five million hectares [12.4 million acres; 19,305 square miles]. The northeastern jungle, Sucumbios, Orellana are already affected, but here the jungle remains well protected."

Now, four years later, the people of the Amazon march once again in the Ecuadorian distances [outside the jungle] to demonstrate their rights and their principle of existence in resistance to the populist-extractivist government of Correa (who has already had to legislate on the rights of Mother Earth).

"As the government expands the oil blocks, we propose declaring the living jungle to be sacred of the beings, where our life is constituted. We propose plans of life: managing the natural resources according to our vision grounded in a fertile earth, applying the knowledge of the peoples and the social behavior that make Sumaj Kawsay (Good Living in Kichwa; in Spanish Buen Vivir). Within that [proposal] we are going to use the natural resources for education, health and our own economy. The platform, the great vision, is to maintain the Sumaj Kawsay, where the natural world is not contaminated but free."

This way of thinking is winning significant battles. In Argentina, impressed by the examples of Bolivia and Ecuador, a Supreme Court Justice wrote "La Pachamama y el humano", Mother Earth and the Human Being (published by Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012). Justice Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni undertakes a legal, philosophical and humanistic review, from Kant to Monod, of man's relationship with the natural and animal world. Zaffaroni calls for working "intelligently" in the search for a "friendly coexistence" between man and La Pachamama, Mother Earth. On page 12, he writes that if they continue preying on the rivers, mountains and animals that live there,

"the planet is going to continue living. It is not going to end, but we are the ones who are not going to continue living, we human beings."

The most lucid indigenous peoples in South America are moving forward on a risky, but possible project. They have managed to set legal limits .... In a 2014 interview with Lobo Suelto [Unleashed, Loose Wolf], Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui declared:

"What we do is transform ourselves into a collective will of 'doing'. We always project ourselves toward the outside as collective wills that break the barrier between the manual and the intellectual."

In her criticism of the government socialisms that, including Bolivia, just don't understand the indigenous peoples, the relentless Aymara thinker said:

"We are no longer alone, since also accompanying us are a whole lot of critters and the Earth." ... 

Are we speaking of a dimension more humane than democracy? Spanish original

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There is no more fitting way to close this post than by presenting the ambitious campaign sponsored by AVAAZ to establish in the Amazon River Basin the world's largest environmental preserve: 135 million hectares [333,592,265 acres; 521,238 square miles] of Amazon jungle. That's more than twice the size of France! The petition states:

"But it won’t happen unless Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela’s leaders know the public wants it. That’s where we [AVAAZ] come in. 

"Colombia has just said it is on board. Now, if we create a huge global push to save the Amazon and combine it with national polls in all three countries, we can give the Colombian president the support he needs to convince Brazil and Venezuela. All three leaders are looking for opportunities to shine at the next UN climate summit. Let’s give it to them.

"The Amazon is vital to life on earth—10% of known species live there, and its trees help slow down climate change by storing billions of tons of carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Experts say this reserve would be a total game-changer for stopping rampant deforestation. Sign the petition now, when we reach 1 million signers, indigenous leaders will deliver our petition and polls directly to the three governments."

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Let me give the last word to Paul Hawken:

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. 

What I see everywhere in the world are tens of millions of ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

Still Curious?

• Paul Hawken (2007), Blessed Unrest; website links to Video (5:45): Paul Hawken delivering core message about this nearly invisible, but powerful worldwide movement. Highly recommended.

• Hermann Bellinghausen, "Donde vive la selva viva" [Where the living jungle lives] (La Jornada, 10/5/2015).

• La Jornada Ojarasca website (Spanish):

• "Los Kichwas Amazónicas Protegen Sus Territorios Gobernándose A Si Mismos" [The Amazon Kichwas Protect Their Territories By Governing Themselves], José Gualinga, Kichwa leader;

• "Sarayaku: crónicas del buen vivir" [Sarayaku: Chronicles of the Good Life], Hermann Bellinghausen (Pastaza, Ecuador).

• Chakana Chronicles blog:

• "Sarayaku: A Journey Into the Heart of the Resistance" tells the story of an outsider's first visit to the community of Sarayaku, with photos; 

• "How You Can Help" (Video, 2:36; Spanish with English/German subtitles): Patricia Gualinga, Kichwa leader, sets Amazon struggle in global context a la Paul Hawken. 

• "Resistance to Mega-Mining Projects in Defense of the Water" (Video, 6:32; Spanish with English/German subtitles): Carlos Pérez Guartambel, leader of the Confederation of Kichwa Nationality, explains how mega-mining projects threaten the water; Carlos Pérez Guartambel holds the doctorate in Law and devotes his practice to 'Indigenous Justice'. 

• Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni (Argentina Supreme Court Justice), "La Pachamama y el humano" [Mother Earth and the Human Being] (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012).

• AVAAZ: About Us; AVAAZ-sponsored petition to create world's largest environmental reserve in the Amazon River basin.

• Previous Green Shoots posts in Jenny's Journal:

• Green Shoots 1: Living Mesoamerican Community;

• Green Shoots 2: Finding Community on Both Side Sides of Our Shared Border;

• Green Shoots 3: Nurturing and Living Community in the U.S.;

• Green Shoots 4: Social Movement Afoot, Eluding Radar of Mainstream Culture.