Not even in my worst nightmares did I think we would have so much deforestation.
So much climate change, so much invasion, so much loss of rights.
We need to fight more
and we especially need to bring people to our side in this fight.
Because the Amazon is life, my daughter, it's life.
Without the Amazon, nobody lives.
Just because of that, because it's life.
I always say that Indigenous peoples suffer from the causes and consequences of climate change.
Among the causes we have mining, deforestation, fires.
We've seen a greater drought, a change in the rains that have been harming our gardens, our plantations.
Our coffee harvest this year was smaller
and this is something we didn't expect.
And we know that today this is a consequence of climate change.
So this ends up harming us economically, harming our food, our food security.
I would say that today in Brazil the main threat to the Amazon is politicians.
I say this because these politicians have voted for laws and proposed laws
that cause an increase in deforestation in the Amazon, that take away all security from protected areas,
because we now have meat, livestock and soy advancing into the Amazon and destroying the Amazon.
I would say that the policies of foreign countries can
and do contribute to the increase in deforestation in the Amazon.
From the moment that foreign countries buy cattle without knowing the origin,
cattle that help deforest the Amazon,
soy, especially soy, which contributes to clear-cutting the forest,
that is, the deforestation to the point of leaving the earth bare.
Deforestation causes the death of wild animals,
deforestation causes an impact on water, on water resources.
And this is a tragedy for the Amazon.
Being an activist in Brazil, defending the Amazon,
defending the environment and human rights in Brazil means that you will be threatened with death,
that you will be persecuted.
But that doesn't make anyone give up, right?
My mother is my biggest insipiration.
She inspires me with the fight, with the strength mainly,
for never giving up.
She has always inspired me.
What mattered was defending what we believed.
From my belly I told her, with her inside my belly,
“look, daughter, you have to be a warrior, you have to fight,
you have to defend the forest, you have to defend the forest peoples”.
I created the youth movement with the aim of articulating and strengthening Indigenous youth in the state.
I feel that the Indigenous movement as a whole needed to be strengthened,
and I think that youth means hope.
It's believing that new world is possible
Talking about the Amazon, talking about Indigenous peoples,
is talking about a global discussion, is talking about the entire planet,
This will not only affect me, my struggle, my community, my territory,
but it will affect everyone.
We have been fighting for over 500 years, Indigenous peoples,
so one sure thing I can say about the future of Indigenous peoples
is that we will fight for as long as necessary.
We will not allow the Amazon to be destroyed, for life to be destroyed.
Life on earth, the permanence of humanity, depends on what humanity does.