World Rainforest Day (June 22): If You Want to Save the Amazon, You Must Protect Its Defenders

On World Rainforest Day, June 22, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) reminds us that protecting the Amazon is inextricably linked to protecting the Indigenous Peoples who live there.

“The world celebrates Indigenous communities as guardians of the rainforest. At the same time, many of them are being threatened, displaced, or murdered. Anyone who wants to preserve the rainforest must protect the people who defend it,” explains Jan Königshausen, STP’s Advisor on Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous territories are among the best-preserved areas of the Amazon. But their protection is not solely the result of a romanticized or supposedly “traditional” way of life. Rather, indigenous communities have been defending their territories for decades against illegal loggers, gold miners, oil companies, land grabbers, and infrastructure projects that destroy their livelihoods. The price of this resistance is high. Intimidation, forced evictions, and lethal violence are part of daily life for many Indigenous human rights and environmental defenders.

Despite protective laws and international obligations, many states in the Amazon region fail to effectively protect indigenous human rights defenders from violence. Impunity remains the norm, while illegal loggers, mining companies, and land grabbers continue to encroach on indigenous territories.

The STP criticizes this fundamental political contradiction. States and international actors benefit from the contributions indigenous communities make to climate protection and biodiversity. At the same time, in many places they fail to effectively enforce these communities’ rights and protect them from violence and displacement.

“Indigenous Peoples deserve protection without any ifs or buts—not just when their territories store carbon or preserve biodiversity. Anyone who justifies their rights solely on the basis of their benefits for the climate is making human rights dependent on political interests,” said Königshausen.

The Amazon is not an untouched wilderness but a habitat shaped and protected by Indigenous societies over centuries. As long as Indigenous communities are exposed to violence, displacement, and the destruction of their territories, any claim to rainforest protection remains incomplete.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at 65]G378o6DD6CA.