“How Do You Live in the Amazon?” - From Brazil to Peru: the ‘mystery’ of a life in the Amazon Rainfo

“Miss Raquel, may I ask you one more question?”

“Sure, Fabio. Go ahead.”

“Could you elaborate on both the necessity to protect the environment and the realization of the right to development through the implementation of energy policies involving Amazon rainforest’s areas?”

“…I see, the right to development…but the development of whom?”

…

Noon had passed by a few minutes and the sun was shining on an early Friday afternoon of a Peruvian summer.

My three colleagues and I, members of a research team conducting a study about environmental human rights defenders in Peru, were meeting with the director of a non-profit organization devoted to defending indigenous rights in the country. Immediately after asking about perceived tensions between environmental protection and development issues, I realized that one of the crucial issues to take into account when discussing the protection of the Amazon rainforest and of the rights of the people defending it from exploitation, is the low degree of reciprocal knowledge between the Amazonian and non-Amazonian inhabitants.

Following Miss Raquel’s words - "the development of whom?” -, I recalled a couple of very interesting conversations that I had during my first days in Peru. While discussing about the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, both a Peruvian citizen working in the Southern Amazon region of Peru, and a group of Brazilian citizens living in the Eastern Amazon region of Brazil, asked me the same rhetorical question:

“Fabio, try this. Ask your Peruvian [Brazilian] friends, living in non-Amazon urban areas, how much they know about the lifestyle in any Amazon region of the country, and in particular, about what they know of indigenous peoples’ lives. You will be surprised by the little knowledge that people, living in rural or in urban areas, have of one another.”

Among the challenges we face as a research team, there is also that of increasing public awareness about the different needs, habits, organizations of societal life, relationships with one’s own territory, and visions of one’s own development, between urban inhabitants and those who have traditionally lived in the forest areas. In particular, by favoring a greater reciprocal knowledge between urban and rural populations, it will be possible to remove the veil of mystery surrounding the lifestyles of indigenous communities residing in the Amazon rainforest. Hence, it will also be easier to raise awareness about the indigenous communities’ rights which stems from indigenous’ residency in forest areas for centuries.

It is not unusual to run into the kind of rhetoric that pits urban against rural communities, and, in particular, indigenous communities. The former accuse the latter of hindering development by claiming rights where rights do not exist, and the latter accuse the former of illegally plundering their legitimate territories. Therefore, augmenting reciprocal knowledge between urban and rural communities, with a specific focus on indigenous lifestyles and rights, is fundamental to address the root causes that often divide urban and rural populations. Moreover, it is crucial to establish a virtuous mechanism that addresses legitimate claims on both sides. Finally, it also helps to prevent certain politicians and investors from using inaccurate and biased arguments to manipulate public opinion and to divide communities, by using the argument that development is solely a matter of investing in resource-rich areas, and whoever opposes it is against development itself.

Hence, increasing knowledge and awareness is necessary to move beyond conflicts regarding competing economic demands by different segments of the population. This may favor legitimate demands for the respect of fundamental rights, as well as diverse interpretations of development.

It is possible to reconcile the necessity of protecting the environment and the full realization of the right to development through investments in the Amazon regions. However, in order for this reconciliation to be successful, our task as researchers and advocates when discussing the urgency to protect the environment and the right to development is to clearly answer Miss Raquel’s question: “the development of whom?” Our research will hopefully help answer this crucial question.