June 20, 2024 Rurrenabaque, Bolivia - The XI Pan-Amazon Social Forum (FOSPA) has just closed with a historic agreement, drawn up by indigenous leaders and civil society organizations, to prioritize their mobilizations towards the creation of Fossil Fuel Free Amazon, instead of the false solutions generated by “green projects”.

In this latest meeting of FOSPA, held from June 12 to 15, 2024 in Rurrenabaque and San Buenaventura (Bolivia), for the first time the commitments resulting from this collective organization process by the communities directly affected by the extraction of fossil fuels throughout the Amazon basin - and therefore, the most legitimate in dictating political guidelines - highlight the need to establish oil and gas-free zones in the Amazon and its related ecosystems: “We demand that States declare the Amazon and the Andean and marine-coastal zones as fossil fuel free zones and free of extractivism, following the emblematic example of Yasuní, and proceeding to close and dismantle these infrastructures and repair the affected towns and nature.”

In this way, the representatives of indigenous peoples, nations and indigenous nationalities of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil; as well as civil society organizations, alliances of the South American bloc and international networks, leave Rurrenabaque with a mandate for collective action, which must be translated into public policy, which allows for saving the Amazon from the extractivist economic matrix.

Juan Bay, President of the Waorani Nation (NAWE), Ecuador, stated: "After four days of intense debates and meetings in the Bolivian jungle, we have reached a clear conclusion: for a living Amazon, the creation of fossil fuel  and extractivism free zones is crucial, prioritizing indigenous territories. Once we return to our respective countries, we will continue the fight to demand that political decision-makers take into account our voices, the voices of indigenous peoples, so that they proceed NOW, to close and dismantle these destructive activities and to repair our territories. They have only brought us poverty, rights violations and death, and are about to end all life on the planet. Putting an end to the proliferation of oil and gas in the Amazon it does not only mean saving us, Amazonian peoples, but also stopping international collective suicide.”

Olivia Bisa, President of the Territorial Government of Chapra Nation, Peru, pointed out: “The concepts that we have worked on, such as energy transition and the conclusions we have reached in FOSPA, must come out of these spaces and we must bring them to discussion in our territories, to see how the rights and lives of those of us who face threats, of defenders, are guaranteed. Struggles must be respected according to our own realities. We need the solidarity of national, international and allied organizations to organize and continue fighting.”

Alexis Grefa, Member of Jóvenes Amazónico, Ecuador, stated: “The countries of the Global North must go from predatory countries to collaborating countries that support us in a very concrete way to put an end to the extractivist model that, in any case, is coming to an end. Moving towards an economy that protects biodiversity, indigenous peoples and the climate requires unprecedented international cooperation, as we have been saying for a decade in Yasuní. Neither Ecuador nor any Amazon country can achieve freedom from oil and gas alone. That is why we need a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

Jamner Manihuari, Vice Coordinator of COICA, declared: “Indigenous peoples must be the ones who decide the direction. We have been working to declare the Amazon as a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Zone, for this we need true allies to help us make this proposal a reality. We cannot stop at words or actions. Fospa's conclusions cannot be archived, and decisions cannot be made without the people. This space should be for us and we make the decisions.”

Laura Verónica Muñoz, Campaign Manager for Latin America at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Colombia, said: ”The need for urgent action to protect the life of the Amazonian people clearly challenges the Global North by rejecting a renewable energy transition based on the massive use of renewable energy that deepens the new extractivism in the region and only responds to the economic interests of the hegemony. We need more countries to join the call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty that precisely wants to promote effective international cooperation based on equity. The Amazon and the world need it.”

Allison Cadenillas, Head of Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Amazon, at MOCICC, Peru, said: "The final declaration of FOSPA is a firm call, built on the experience of struggle of indigenous peoples, to face the transition energy imposed from the Global North, which perpetuates the colonial and extractivist model. As civil society organizations, we have to listen to this call, support it and accompany the roadmap proposed by the organizations to ensure that the energy transition is fair and popular, and that it fully respects the collective rights, self-determination and autonomy of peoples and nationalities”

Augusto Durán, Head of the Campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty in Peru, MOCICC, added: “Our role as institutions is to facilitate spaces and echo the call of the communities, from Rurrenabaque, that have united their voices to demand a true solution that repairs the extractivist and colonialist history, holding those responsible in the Global North responsible for this climate crisis and this social solution must start from restoring the Amazon ecosystems, and at the same time, promote a fair and popular energy transition that seeks energy sovereignty, decentralization, and economic alternatives with territorial participation and autonomy. It is now our job to save the Amazon and protect life.”