Miguel Chindoy, Indigenous leader

Letter of support from Miguel Chindoy, Indigenous leader

From the mountains and jungles of the world, September 2023

UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION – UN.

Re: Biodiversity

Subject: The voice of the Indigenous peoples of America and beyond.

Sirs:

Through this medium, we salute the institutions and their authorities present at the event that they periodically convene to discuss and decide on the fate of the common home of humanity and of present and future generations. We salute you as children of the earth, your brothers, and heirs of ancestral knowledge about the historical responsibility of being guardians of nature.

We address you in the language that we have learned from nature and the understanding we have acquired of life, where Mother Earth together with its mountains, jungles, rivers, and wastelands speak to us and teach us about the responsibility of being guardians of nature. life. What we express to you is that we have been fulfilling this mission for centuries for free for the benefit of humanity and therefore we feel the right to express the following to you:

Without intermediaries. There be no intermediaries either from governments or from organizations that sell resources for the fair claim of our rights according to the uses and customs of the native peoples because the native peoples are holders of rights that are pre-existing to the constitution and the laws, which, because they are inherent to our existence as peoples, they are prevalent and imprescriptible. Our life has been governed under the guidance of the law of origin because life is superior and prior to any human norm. From the different territories where we fulfill our mission of being guardians of life, today we have unified this voice so that we can dialogue and agree within a DIRECT DIALOGUE WITHOUT INTERMEDIARIES between those who own the economic resources and those of us who are holders of ancestral rights for a fair negotiation and responsible
One-year term contracts. The contracts for carbon credits for 20 years or longer, in which some communities have become involved without further information about the impacts; It is inappropriate for the communities. For centuries we have been guardians of the land without any type of contract; Therefore, the owners of economic resources must guarantee that in terms of time, it is what the Indigenous peoples have at their disposal. And given that on the issue of carbon, definitions have already been made and decisions have been made; What we hope is that in the other possible contracts (whether for biodiversity or others) the time will be agreed for minimum periods of one year, renewable if the communities so decide.
No compensation. The fauna existing in Indigenous territories is part of the existing natural order. Animals in their natural habitat do not distinguish borders and are not interested in knowing who is the owner or ruler of the territory in which they live. In that order, compensation for the care of fauna species that are in their habitat should not have restrictions for communities. We do not want a sovereign Indigenous nation to suffer, with its animals being killed, because another nation created biodiversity credits.
Expand participation to groups with hunting rights. We do not share that there are conditions of land ownership under the logic and categories of the dominant system. To be historical guardians of nature we do not need property documents because we have ancestral ownership over the lands; In fact, to be guardians of biodiversity and to access the benefits of this mission, we must not submit to the requirements of the land market.

For Indigenous peoples, it is inexplicable that after centuries of mistreatment and abandonment at the same time by the governments in power, we continue to be the ad honorem guardians of nature, from which resources and knowledge continue to be looted; But above all, Mother Earth continues to be treated as a simple commodity. That is why governments, together with commercial companies of natural goods, intend that Indigenous peoples continue to be cheap or free servants of their purposes.

For that dialogue and negotiations in a direct and unrestricted manner, which the aboriginal peoples demand, on our part we are organized as SAVIMBO, with our own spokespersons under the guidance of our spiritual guides from each territory. In fact, it is our purpose that as Savimbo we are heard in the different scenarios where decisions are made on these transcendental issues around the protection of nature, which is the protection of our life itself, since direct dialogue is a demonstration of an adequate start of environmental justice.

Finally, what we have expressed here is not only the human voice of the children of the earth; It is above all the voice of the plants, the rivers, and the jaguar; whose language has now reached us; In fact, it is our duty to convey that nothing human purposes can go beyond the will of the law of origin, which is the mother law of life.

Cordially:

Children of the earth, your brothers:

Southern Colombia