The Amazon is a unique land and its peoples as well. One of the purposes of men and women, adults, youth and children who have met in Belém do Pará in this Brazilian giant, is to report their existence and demand the respect of their rights.

The Andean, indigenous and Amazonian peoples have woken up early this morning and have been the first to open the World Social Forum, dancing and singing. Peoples who live in India, Canada, Guatemala, Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador and the Amazonian peoples from Brazil, host of the Ninth World Social Forum, have gathered in Belem.

Songs and dances in circles were used to acquire energy or "energize" the body, awaken the spirits and ask them to let things flow. Later, men, women and children walked wearing their costumes, symbols, tattoos, jewelry...

They stopped in a green area where hundreds of people formed the words: Save the Amazon. This slogan was photographed from helicopters as a message to be sent to the world.

The people demand respect for their land, where they hunt, fish, drink water, water that is increasingly scarce and polluted. They demand to be heard and taken into account in decisions affecting their environment, they demand the right to health, to speak their language and be respected.

In the adjacent lands between Brazil, Colombia and Peru live the Ticuna people. During the rally, Paolo Mendes, leader of the Ticuna people of the Alto Solimões region, state of Amazonas, said that the earth is life for them. He stated that more than 16,000 people live under threat from loggers and fishermen, who come from Colombia and Peru.

Struggle and utopia The Ticuna people is participating in the Forum to say enough to the invasion and exploitation of their lands. The message of the Ticuna people is clear: in the Amazon there are peoples who originally own the land, with their own beliefs, languages and therefore they will withstand any abuse committed against their territories or lands.

Aymara people living in Bolivia have also come to Brazil. Rosa Khuno works in La Paz in the Education Section of the Episcopal Conference. Rosa, the Sumaq Kawsay expression or Good Living, disseminated by the Quechua people of Guatemala, was one of the dreams or utopias shared by many indigenous peoples around the world: to achieve harmony between nature and human beings. She says that the most difficult challenge is to reduce global consumption, especially in the North. In Aymara: Sumaq Qamaña. The Amazon is a unique land and its peoples as well. One of the purposes of men and women, adults, youth and children who have met in Belém do Pará in this Brazilian giant, is to report their existence and demand the respect of their rights.