Do we learn? The care and protection needed.
                                                                                                    Walter Andrade Parreira
 

If on the one hand we need take care for and preserve the physical and biological Amazon, which is the source of riches and food, the largest biodiversity on Earth, the largest source of water, forest and life on our planet, we must, on the other hand, take care of the human Amazon. It houses the experiences of people which are the main references, reserves and examples of life in fraternity, love, sharing and solidarity.

Indigenous territories cannot be invaded, indigenous peoples cannot disappear. Our early Christian community needs to survive. Preserving the indians is preserving the forest, because the indians are the ones who protect and take care of the forest. Preserving the forest is preserving the indians. They need large extensions of land to survive, they only know how to hunt and fish.

And there are ambitious looks upon their land. Their land are fertile, they have ores, ancient trees, coveted animals. Its rivers are large, its waters are generous. And the ambitious and voracious looks, the non-Indians looks do not know and cannot understand – like those who they have been taking care of the forest for hundreds of years know and understand. The indians understand that land is sacred, that the river is sacred, that the animals are sacred ... that life is sacred. They do not know. They do not know that the land is not an object to be expropriated and sucked; they do not know that the land is a living being, that it is the Earth/Mother. And, thus, they are not able to take care and respect the land; they tear the forest, cut trees, attack, they destroy everything: the land, the rivers, the humans. They kill ... they do not know they are killing themselves.

There are riches that they are targeting and they cannot destroy the human and spiritual source that live there. The spirituality of the Amazon cannot get lost, it needs to rise more and more... with the forest and with its keepers.

But the Amazon is not only a distant land. The Amazon is also here, in our houses, in our gardens, in our cities, our rivers and our forests which surround us.

And it is also within us, we have to take care of our rivers, our forests which are inside us. If we cannot take care of our inner temple, the Being inside us, we'll never know how to take care of the "Amazon".

Let us take care of the land and the rivers, let us take care of our brothers indians and non-indians, let us take care of our city and the Amazon, let us take care of ourselves, let us take care of life..