Letter of Indigenous Peoples of the Pantanal and Chaco of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil to the coordination of the Campaign in Defense of the Parana and Paraguay Rivers.

Asuncion, Paraguay July 1, 1995

We, the Indigenous Peoples of the region of Mercosur, sound an alert to those people who call themselves civilized:

We are the traditional and historical inhabitants of these lands and these waters since before the time when white men began to travel to dominate other peoples and nature. We are the natural guardians of nature because it is from her that our material and spiritual ways of life spring. Now, when modern men with their technologies have already destroyed the earth, contaminated the waters and the air, we the indigenous peoples alert all humanity that a mega-project is being implemented which aims to change the course of the waters in our region. All this will have consequences for our communities, for farming people, fisherfolk, and even for those ranchers and agricultural companies who respect the natural process of the waters within the Chaco and the Pantanal. Once again this is development which makes a few people rich, but makes the great majority of the people even poorer than they already are, besides killing nature, and its natural wealth as a provider of medicines and foods, a direct threat to our society and our culture.

The civilized world cannot hope to live in peace even as entire families are disappearing, since these huge economic projects seek only short term profits, and do not take into account the impacts they cause, such as climate change, alteration of animal life, and the destruction of biodiversity. We indigenous peoples cannot afford to once again pay the huge social costs of this project. Even more serious is the knowledge that these initial studies have the support and financial backing of the United Nations through UNDP, and of the Inter-American Development Bank, and take place at the beginning of the Decade of Indigenous Peoples established by the UN. The Great Creator made these waters to provide us health and to quench our thirst, to provide food, and also as the road for our travels.

We call on all friends of Indians and nature, including the governments, parliaments, artists, intellectuals and populations in general to help us slow down the material ambitions of the white men. We live here, but when our waters and our lands are sick or dead, it will also be the end of us, but it will also be the end of nature and this will make our common future uncertain not only here in the land of Mercosur, and in the land of Nafta and the European Union, but, in the end, of all humanity.

Emilio Gimenez, Nivacle Coordination of Native Peoples of the Pilcomayo River Basin