Representatives of ancestral territories launched the Alliance of Traditional Peoples and Communities: Guardians of the Atlantic Forest. The launch took place at the University of São Paulo Law School on National Atlantic Forest Day. The Atlantic forest is one of Brazil’s most threatened biomes.

Formed by representatives from indigenous and traditional peoples from across the country, the alliance was organized to represent and defend the Atlantic forest, as well as to fight for the territorial rights of these peoples and communities.

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“We are traditional peoples and communities, guardians of ancestral knowledge, which enables us to care for mother nature, her forests, rivers, lakes, and seas,” the alliance’s founding manifesto reads.

Ivanildes Kerexu, coordinator of the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission and a resident of the Rio Bonito Village in Ubatuba, São Paulo, said that the alliance is an initiative to unite peoples and to further protect this territory.

“We need to form this Atlantic forest alliance so that we can have the right to public policies and, of course, also for environmental preservation,” she said.

“What has preserved the Atlantic forest to this day has always been the traditional communities that live there and are resisting,” she added.

Federal Representative Sonia Guajajara, former Minister of Indigenous Peoples, who attended the launch ceremony, emphasized the role of the movement as a space for dialogue, reporting abuses, and building community.

“For us, it’s obvious – our daily struggle is not always understood by legal institutions. That is why these voices are needed every day, so that this message reaches everywhere, and is understood,” she declared.

In addition to the consequences of exploitation, mining, and deforestation, Guajajara argued, Brazil now faces an international threat linked to the exploitation of rare earths and critical minerals.

“If rare earths are exploited in the same way – without regard for rights, without safeguards, and without free, prior, and informed consultation – the consequences will be no different from what oil exploitation has meant for our peoples,” she went on to say.

For this reason, she noted, the creation of this coalition comes at a very opportune moment. “We are up against powerful structures – both economic and political – that have no desire whatsoever to understand what we do as a contribution to life on the planet. So, this forum of traditional communities in defense of the Atlantic forest is gaining strength at a key moment, a moment when more than half of the Atlantic forest has already been lost.”

Atlantic forest

Considered the common cradle of Brazilian history and biodiversity, the Atlantic forest is threatened by large-scale development projects and real estate speculation. Other factors that have also contributed to its destruction, according to members of the alliance, include exploitative tourism – particularly the construction of new resorts – the use of pesticides and the extraction of oil and fossil fuels.

Data on the biome reveal that only about 12.4 percent of its original vegetation remains today – vegetation that once covered 15 percent of Brazilian territory. Despite this, the forest still shelters over 20 thousand plant species and over 2 thousand vertebrate species, many of which exist nowhere else in the world.

The Atlantic forest is also vital to the economy and human life, as it provides water for more than 145 million Brazilians – that is, about 70 percent of Brazilians.