International Communication and Intercultural Connection with Amazonian Indigenous Peoples: Amplifying the Voice of Those Who Speak for the Trees

Keywords: Amazonia, Indigenous peoples, communication, climate change, environmental defenders, storytelling
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Timely and impactful communications concerning the climate crisis continue to gain importance as the reach of the planetary emergency extends to all landscapes, livelihoods, and living beings. However, the communities shouldering the greatest burdens of the expanding climate catastrophe continue to be those who often contributed the least amount to the crisis. The remote Amazon borderlands shared by Brazil and Peru are the homelands of Indigenous people experiencing and observing the daily effects of accelerating climate change. Indigenous peoples in large forested landscapes provide an immediate defense for some of the world’s most ecologically and culturally important ecosystems threatened by deforestation, forest degradation, and unsustainable resource extraction. Although extractive, exploitative systems and institutions endanger local communities and ecosystems, Indigenous environmental defenders continue to lead the fight to preserve their Amazonian homelands – and thus, by default, the world’s equilibrium. This poster shares intercultural initiatives to facilitate communication across borders and cultures to build agency and collaboration with Indigenous peoples on the climate crisis. Intercultural, interregional, and international support, communication, and action facilitate the needs of those who speak for the trees.