Advertisement
Environment

Choose Earth to give indigenous communities power to save Amazon and planet

Choose Love and Earthrise have launched an Earth Day campaign to raise £150,000 for social and environmental justice in Brazil

Choose Earth

The Amazon rainforest is known as the lungs of the world, and now a campaign is aiming to breathe new life into efforts to help indigenous communities save it from President Jair Bolsonaro’s clutches.

Bolsonaro has faced criticism over soaring deforestation throughout his two-year tenure, and has been locked in talks with US counterpart Joe Biden over support for the Amazon.

Choose Earth
Holding the Earth (quedadocéu)
The Choose Earth campaign wants to put the power to save the planet and the Amazon in indigenous leaders' hands. Image credit: Choose Earth

But a campaign launched on Earth Day is aiming to put the power to replant the Amazon in the hands of 64 indigenous communities across Brazil.

Choose Earth, driven by refugee charity Choose Love and media company Earthrise, is seeking to raise £150,000 with 100 per cent of all donations going to support the communities in their frontline fight for social and environmental justice.

Indigenous leaders, activists, storytellers, artists and academics have all teamed up to join the Choose Earth campaign, including Daiara Tukano, Sônia Guajajara, Narubia Werreria and Gliceria Tupinamba. The group has joined forces to stand against deforestation which threatens the home of indigenous groups and the future of the planet. 

Josie Naughton, co-founder of Choose Love, the charity previously known as Help Refugees, said UN forecasts that estimate there could be between 25 million and one billion environmental migrants by 2050

She told The Big Issue: “By safeguarding these guardians of our planet, we are not only preventing their displacement, we are also safeguarding the environments in which they live and our collective future.”

Indigenous communities also have the expertise needed to replant the trees and plants lost to deforestation in the Amazon, according to Earthrise studio founder Alice Aedy.

Article continues below

Current vacancies...

Search jobs

She added: “How can we expect to solve the climate crisis when violent racism is uprooting indigenous communities around the world and ignoring their knowledge? 

“In Brazil, it is the indigenous people who hold the scientific knowledge of how to protect the most biodiverse environments on our planet. To get out of this climate crisis, they need to lead the way.”

Donations can be made and artwork and merchandise can be bought at chooseearth.co to support the campaign.

Subscribe to your local Big Issue vendor

If you can’t get to a Big Issue vendor every week, subscribing online is the best way to support vendors to earn a legitimate income and work their way out of poverty.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
UK won't reach net zero without carbon capture – so why do we keep 'screwing it up'?
carbon capture
Net zero

UK won't reach net zero without carbon capture – so why do we keep 'screwing it up'?

This mum used to watch her son 'struggle for breath'. After a year of Ulez, things are much better
ULEZ

This mum used to watch her son 'struggle for breath'. After a year of Ulez, things are much better

Outcry after water companies say they can't fix the sewage crisis without hiking bills: 'Insulting'
homeless heatwave
Water bills

Outcry after water companies say they can't fix the sewage crisis without hiking bills: 'Insulting'

Windermere was flooded with 8,787 hours of raw sewage last year. One man is fighting back
Sewage pollution

Windermere was flooded with 8,787 hours of raw sewage last year. One man is fighting back

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know