A group of religious leaders linked to the Interfaith Rainforest Intiative in Brazil held a demonstration against the Environmental Destruction Package during the social movements' plenary session at the Terra Livre Camp in April.
Brazilian religious leaders from various spiritual traditions, members of the IRI Brazil’s Advisory Council, participated on 14/04, in the act of solidarity with the indigenous peoples at the "Acampamento Terra Livre". The religious leaders were welcomed by indigenous leaders on the central stage of the event.
The following religious leaders took part in the act with messages in favor of the struggle of indigenous peoples and the protection of forests: Pastor Romi Bencke, from the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), Father Marcus Barbosa, from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Pastor Maruilson Souza, from the Brazilian Evangelical Christian Alliance (ACEB), Sonia Guajajara, Executive Coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), Flávio Conrado, from Religiões Pela Paz Brasil and Aliança de Batistas do Brasil, Mãe Baiana do Acarajé, a member of the District Council for Religious Diversity, Natália Gedanken, from the Associação Cultural Israelita de Brasília (ACIB), representing the Confederação Israelita do Brasil (CONIB), Fernando de La Rocque, anthropologist and founder of the Centro Eclético da Fluente Luz Universal Alfredo Gregório de Melo (CEFLAG), which follows the spiritual doctrine of Santo Daime, and Monje Sato from Buddhism.
During the ceremony, the following Open Letter against the set of Bills known as the Environmental Destruction Package, especially against Bill 191/2020, which frees mining, garimpo and other large enterprises on indigenous lands.
A symbolic act marked the closing where each religious leader and indigenous representative put some soil in a pot and together they planted a Pau-Brasil tree sapling. The meaning of the event was to unite everyone for the ecological restoration of Brazilian land and for the defense of the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples, quilombolas, riverside dwellers and other communities who live in and care for the forests and our environment in general.
