Uyukar Domingo Peas, an Ecuadorian indigenous activist, says if there are still “reservoirs of natural resources” in the world, it’s because “we’ve protected them for thousands of years.”

Peas has fought against forest destruction for three decades and regrets that states and companies continue to destroy the Amazon despite the urgency of the climate crisis.

“The Amazon must remain intact for youth and the rest of humanity,” the 58-year-old from the Achuar nation told AFP, lamenting that governments and companies have not sought indigenous knowledge to save the planet.

Peas was speaking at Environment Week, a series of independent events involving indigenous peoples from around the world taking place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

According to organizations that defend them, an estimated 80 percent of the world’s tropical forests — about 800 million hectares — are on indigenous lands.

Many indigenous people blame capitalism for the destruction of their forests.

“We want companies and banks to stop investing for money and invest for the common good,” because “climate change affects everyone,” he said.

He is calling for funding to implement the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, which aims to protect 35 million hectares in Peru and Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest and is home to 30 indigenous communities of around 600,000 people.

He hopes the nine countries that share the Amazon – often referred to as the lungs of the planet, which stretches over nearly 300 million hectares with three million people from more than 500 peoples – will join this initiative.

Peas advocates for a new “bioeconomy,” with new energy sources, tourism programs and other initiatives to ensure Indigenous youth do not migrate from their homes.

“We want to take care of the jungle and live from the jungle,” he said.

Compared to the large sums needed for the oil and mining projects that are polluting their lands and rivers, Peas’ initiative requires only $19 million over 10 years.

“Mother Earth doesn’t expect us to save her, she expects us to respect her,” said Nemonte Nenquimo, the Ecuadorian chief of the Waorani nation.

The Covid pandemic and “the collective hysteria of oil-dependent countries” following the conflict in Ukraine have dealt a serious blow to the indigenous climate struggle, said Levi Sucre of the Bribri community, an indigenous people living between Costa Rica and Panama.

With priorities on economic recovery, indigenous rights “have declined at an alarming rate over the past two or three years,” he told AFP.

He said the most alarming case is in Brazil, where the government is “deliberately ignoring indigenous peoples.”

Representatives of indigenous peoples complain that the resources agreed at climate meetings hardly ever reach them.

Monica Kristiani Ndoen, a young Indonesian indigenous leader, said that “the challenge is to access climate funds directly”.

“The question is, where is the money going?

For Venezuelan Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, general coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), the problem is that “we are not present at the meetings where the decisions are made”.

“If you want us to continue providing oxygen, rivers, forests and drinking water, respect our home,” he said.