Nature as a Spiritual Expression Calls for Urgent Action

We, religious leaders from diverse traditions and spiritualities, unite in this letter to express our deep concern about the successive and growing environmental tragedies our country has faced and the prospect of even worse ones in the near future. The increase in forest fires and burning in the Amazon, Pantanal, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest is destroying our biodiversity, degrading soils and water resources, exacerbating the global climate crisis, corroding our economy, and causing illness and suffering among the population.

We recognize the efforts made by the government to address these issues and restore socio-environmental governance, which was criminally weakened during the previous administration. This commitment has yielded important results, such as the significant reduction in deforestation in the Amazon. However, the country’s environmental situation remains extremely worrying and requires greater mobilization of all strategic government sectors and the involvement of state and municipal governments.

We note with great sadness that the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, and Ministries such as Mines and Energy, Transportation, and Agriculture remain wedded to a vision of development from the past, and continue to defend mining on Indigenous Lands and oil exploration instead of prioritizing the exploitation of the country’s renewable energy potential; the paving of the BR-319 highway, which will favor the destruction of millions of hectares of the Amazon rainforest and forever affect the lives of thousands of Indigenous people living in the region; the expansion of the agricultural frontier into the Cerrado and the Amazon; and the increased use of pesticides that are extremely dangerous to human health and the environment.

Brazil occupies a leading position on the international stage. It hosts the G20 and COP 30, events that will be decisive for the commitments and impacts of environmental and climate policies on our biomes, their populations, and the future of the planet. In this context, it is unacceptable that Brazil, a country blessed with the greatest biodiversity on the planet and with such international prominence, continues to contribute to the worsening of climate change and the destruction of its most precious ecosystems. 

Religious communities have long been committed to climate and socio-environmental justice, and therefore, we join these voices to further advance the process of protecting our biodiversity and the indigenous peoples and traditional communities who are its primary guardians. Nature, in its multiple forms, is a central element in our spiritual practices and in the expression of faith of our communities. Through divine creation, we find the sacred in forests, rivers, the various elements of nature, animals, and people. As we witness the destruction of essential ecosystems, we feel that not only is nature being violated, but also the spiritual principles that guide our lives. Protecting nature is not only an environmental issue, but also a spiritual and moral duty. As religious leaders, we are committed to welcoming and caring for those who suffer the consequences of these catastrophes, but also to preventing them through environmental protection.

We therefore ask that the federal government rethink its policies on the exploitation of natural resources, placing the preservation of divine creation and the protection of human lives as a top priority, as expressed in the following demands:

• Zero deforestation: Immediate and effective implementation of compliance with the Forest Code, focusing on the comprehensive protection of the Amazon, the Cerrado, and all Brazilian biomes. 
• Currently, there are 873 oil and gas blocks under concession in the country, two-thirds of them onshore and one-third offshore. This exploration could double, with 769 new blocks currently on offer. We demand a halt to concessions and new offers. 
• Investments in Renewable Energy: Redirection of investments currently allocated to the exploration of fossil fuels towards the development of clean and renewable energy, which respect the premises of a just and popular transition, in alignment with Brazil’s international climate commitments. 
• Adoption of an NDC compatible with maintaining the rise in the planet’s average temperature at around 1.5 degrees Celsius and influencing other countries during COP 30 to do the same.
• Demarcation of Indigenous Lands, titling of Traditional Territories, land regularization, and fair agrarian reform, with a focus on food sovereignty. Promoting agroecology, valuing family, peasant, and artisanal fishing production, as well as the Indigenous economy, guaranteeing income generation to combat hunger, poverty, and social inequality.
• Suspension of active mineral operations and processes on indigenous lands, quilombolas and fully protected conservation units.

We believe these actions are necessary and, above all, urgent, to ensure that Brazil can continue to be an example to the world of how development and sustainability can go hand in hand, as a guardian of life and biodiversity. We count on your commitment and leadership to transform these demands into reality.

This document is signed by: 

Pastor Andrea Alechandre (Foursquare Gospel Church) – Rio Branco/Acre 

Dom Roque Paloschi (Archdiocese of Porto Velho) – Porto Velho/Rondônia

Maria da Rocha (Guardians of Good Living) – Lago Grande, Santarém/Pará

Mother Jô Santos (Terreiro of Saint George Tumajamacê) – São Luís/Maranhão

Rayana Burgos (Terreiros Network for the Environment) – Recife/Pernambuco

Sister Maria Irene Lopes (Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network – REPAM)

Pastor Romi Bencke (National Council of Christian Churches – CONIC)

Mametu Nangetu (Terreiro Manso Massumbando Who Who Granddaughter)

Denildo Rodrigues de Moraes (National Coordination of Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities – CONAQ) 

Supporting organizations: