Manifesto of the Americas: In Defense of Nature and Biological and Cultural Diversity

We live in a dominant economic system that for centuries has engaged
in the unlimited exploitation of all ecosystems and their natural
resources. This strategy has generated economic growth and, for some
countries, what has been called "development," and has privileged the
consumption and well-being of a small fraction of humanity. And,
unfortunately, it has excluded the great majority of humanity from
access to minimum conditions for survival.

The costs of this system of exploitation of nature and of human
beings, and of uncontrolled consumerism, has been paid with the
sacrifice of millions of poor working people, peasants, indigenous
peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and the poorer people in society,
who give their lives every single day. And this is accompanied by
on-going aggression against Nature, that has been and still is
systematically devastating. The integrity and diversity of life forms,
which are the basis of biodiversity, are under threat. Nature on our
planet is threatened, as is human life, which depends on Nature. Even
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment conducted by the UN, and released
in 2005, recognizes that, "human activities are fundamentally and
irreversibly changing the diversity of life on planet Earth. These
changes will only accelerate in the future." In this important
recognition of the planetary crisis, it is critical that we recognize
that it is not all human activity that is so damaging, but rather,
above all, those actions guided by the uncontrolled drive for profit of
transnational corporations.

Faced with this dramatic situation, we feel the need to affirm
alternatives that can assure a hopeful future for life, for humanity,
and for the Earth. We need to pass from an industrial production
society, consumerist and individualistic, that sacrifices ecosystems
and penalizes human beings, while destroying social and biological
diversity, to a society that sustains life. This must be a society in
motion toward a life that is socially just and ecologically
sustainable, and that takes care of the community of life and protects
the physio-chemical and ecological bases of support for all living
systems, including that of human beings.

As inhabitants of the American continent we are conscious of
our universal responsibility. Through us, also, passes the future of
the Earth. The Amazonian and Andean countries, for example, like
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil, are
mega-diverse countries. Not just because of the presence of very rich
ecosystems, but also because of of the many indigenous peoples,
peasants, quilombolas and other local communities, that over centuries
and millennia have learned to co-exist with biological and cultural
diversity. The Amazon forest in our countries makes up a third of all
tropical forests in the world, and contains more than 50% of the
biodiversity. In it there are at least 45,000 species of plants, 1,800
species of butterflies, 150 species of

bats, 1,300 species of freshwater fish, 163 species of amphibians, 305
species of reptiles, 311 species of mammals, and 1,000 species of
birds.

Because of this richness, Latin America is the object of the
greed of the "neoliberal global-colonizers," via the action of dozens
of transnational corporations, principally companies from the Global
North, who are shamelessly engaged in bio-piracy. If it once was the
race for gold and silver, today it is the race to monopolize genetic
and pharmacological resources and the traditional and local knowledge
that accompanies them, which have become strategic resources for the
future of business in the global market. And they want to impose upon
us patent laws and protections for their windfall profits.

We want to confront, decisively, this process of exploitation and destruction. We propose consistent policies that:

1. Conserve the biological and cultural diversity of our
ecosystems, including all the living organisms in their habitats, and
protect the interdependencies among them, within the dynamic
equilibrium that characterizes each ecological region, together with
the socially and ecologically sustainable interaction with the peoples
that inhabit each region.

2. Guarantee the integrity and beauty of ecosystems and of the
peoples that conserve and depend on them. This implies preserving the
features of ecosystems that assure their functioning and maintain the
identity of living beings in their territorial, biological, social,
cultural, landscape level, historic and monumental aspects. The
preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and of the integrity
and beauty of ecological systems, can assure the sustainability of the
multiple environmental functions and benefits for human beings today
and in future generations. Among these are: clean water, food,
medicine, wood, fiber, climate regulation, and flood and disease
prevention. At the same time they constitute the basis of recreation,
esthetics, and of spirituality, while at the same time supporting the
soil, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling, among other vital functions
for all of humanity.

3. We oppose, decisively, the introduction of exotic species
that are non-adaptive for our ecosystems, as has happened in many
biomes with the promotion of homogeneous, industrial plantations of
Eucalyptus, pine, etc., that destroy natural ecosystems and have
severe, negative social impacts on the peoples that inhabit these
areas. What they produce is profit for a few, dollars, cellulose,
carbon, polluted water, a degraded environment, and poverty.

4. We strongly oppose the liberation of transgenic organisms in
the environment, whether in farms, plantations, ranching or whatever
other activity in the environment. Beyond being unnecessary, they are
essentially useless for anything other than transnational corporate
profits. They represent potential risks to human health and can cause
irreversible damage to Nature and ecosystems. We emphatically oppose
the introduction of transgenic trees, which represent an even grater
danger, because, among other reasons, their pollen can be disseminated
over many miles or kilometers, inevitably contaminating other forest
species, including native species, and they can have multiple impacts
on flora, insects and other components of fauna, and can undercut the
basis of the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, peasants,
quilombolas and other local communities.

5. We pledge to combat Terminator seeds because they put life
itself -- and its reproduction -- at risk, as they are "suicide seeds"
that only benefit the transnational corporations that control our
seeds, imposing a position of dependence on farmers.

6. We oppose the attempt of the imperial government of the
United States and its transnational corporations to impose the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on us, as well as diverse bilateral
free trade agreements (FTAs), treaties to protect foreign investment,
and agreements adopted in totally undemocratic manners at Summits and
in the WTO. These agreements put our Nature, our agriculture, our
services, and the living conditions of our populations at greater risk,
and only prioritize guarantees in the interest of profits.

7. We express our support for, and recognition of, the peoples
and communities who over centuries and millennia have developed our
agricultural biodiversity, through the selection and conservation of
the seeds that today are the basis of the world's agriculture and of
humanity's food supply. To maintain this basis of our sustenance, this
enormous richness of agricultural and culinary diversity, we must
recognize and affirm the rights of peasants, indigenous peoples,
pastoralists, fisherfolk, quilombolas and others, to land, territory
and to natural resources, so that they can continue to carry out the
essential task for humanity of conserving diverse local seed varieties,
which can only take place at the local level. We will fight those
companies that seek control over our seeds, against the traditions of
the peoples who are the stewards of our seeds, who always understood
seeds as the source of life, which should never be turned into mere
commodities.

Finally, we express our hope that these resolutions benefit our
peoples and benefit our food sovereignty -- that is, the right of each
and every people to produce their own food, in conditions of good
health and social justice, and in balance with Nature. We defend those
who work in the countryside, our farmers and peasants. We defend their
right to live as farmers, and to thusly guarantee the sustenance of our
populations. This peasant mode of production contributes decisively to
the sustainability of our planet, and to integral, broad-based
development, essential for the future of humanity.

April 20, 2006

Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana, Brazil, building an America free of GMOs and aggression against the environment.

1. Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela

2. Roberto Requião, Governor of Parana

3. Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Laureate, Argentina

4. Eduardo Galeano, writer. Uruguay

5. Peter Rosset, food sovereignty researcher. USA/Mexico

6. Pat Mooney, ETC-Group, specialist in the impacts of GMOs and other new technologies, Canada

7. Silvia Ribeiro, researcher ETC-Group, Mexico

8. Noam Chosmki, linguist, MIT, USA

9. Atilio Boron, social scientist, CLACSO, Argentina

10. Violeta Menjivar, Mayor of San Salvador, El Salvador

11. Camille Chalmers, Jubilee South, HAITI

12. Ramon Grosfoguel, Puerto Rico

13. Doris Gutierrez, Congresswomen, Honduras

14. Monica Batoldano, ex-comandante Sandinista. Nicaragua

15. Ernesto Cardenal, poet, priest and ex-minister of culture, Nicaragua

16. Gioconda Belli, poet. Nicaragua

17. Raul Suarez, Baptist pastor and congressman. Cuba

18. Miguel Altieri, professor of agroecology, Univ. California, USA/CHILE

19. Fernando Lugo, Catholic bishop. Paraguay

20. Blanca Chancoso, Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, CONAIE - Ecuador

21. Hebe de Bonafini, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina

22. Aníbal Quijano, social scientist, Peru

23. Leonardo Boff, theologian and writer, Brazil

24. Beth Carvalho, cantautora. Brasil

25. Mons. Pedro Casaldaliga, Bishop and poet - Brazil

26. Mons Ladislau Biernaski, Catholic bishop, Curitiba. Brasil

27. Monja Coen, Buddhist nun, Brazil

28. João Pedro Stedile, leader of MST-Via Campesina-Brazil

29. Temistocles Marcelos Netto. Nat. Sec'ty Environmet, CUT. Brazil

30. Leticia Sabatela, actress, Artists Human Rights Movement, Brazil

31. Nalu Faria, World March of Women, Brazil

32. Pedro Ivo Batista. Eco-socialist Network. Brasil