The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, is crucial not only for the countries it spans but also for global climate stability and biodiversity. Unfortunately, it is under severe threat from human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and environmental degradation.

Recognizing the Amazon as a subject of rights is essential for its protection and restoration. This recognition will provide a robust legal framework to safeguard its ecological integrity and uphold the rights of the Indigenous peoples and local communities that depend on it.

By acknowledging the Amazon’s intrinsic value, we can promote a necessary shift toward an ecocentric perspective that balances our relationship with nature.

In June 2024, over 1,500 people gathered in Bolivia for the XI Pan-Amazon Social Forum. During this event, a Declaration of the Rights of the Amazon was developed, subsequently included in the FOSPA mandate, and endorsed by all national and international FOSPA committees.

The declaration has been submitted to the authorities of Brazil and Colombia, with the latter hosting the Convention on Biological Diversity at COP16 in October this year. Following the 2018 ruling of the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice (STC 4360-2018), which recognized the Amazon as a subject of rights, now is the time to raise our voices and demand rights for the Amazon.