On Tuesday, leaders of indigenous groups from nine different countries in the Amazon met in Ecuador to call for an end to resource extraction in South America. During this event, they appealed to the central governments to observe and show respect for legal determinations and standing accords that recognize the land rights of indigenous groups. Failure to abide by these agreements and protect these groups, of which 500 were represented at Tuesday’s meeting, demonstrates disrespect as oil and mining projects in their territories are pursued without consultation. In Ecuador, the native movement gained power after the Constitutional Court deferred permits for a mining plan, defending the indigenous right to approve development projects that impact their way of life or are situated within their territorial limits.

“It is not a relationship of 10 or 20 years, it is a relationship of more than 10,000 years,” stated José Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, the General Coordinator of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and a leader in the protection of native rights. “Throughout these years we have been able, with our culture, with our worldview, with our way of respecting nature, to preserve. I’m not talking about conserving, I’m talking about respecting nature. We keep it because we see it as family, we see it as a mother, we see it as our home. Our territories, where the indigenous peoples are, are contrasted with the map of destruction that exists on the planet. Where indigenous peoples live there are forests, rivers, and biodiversity… Most of the territories of the Indigenous Peoples have great threats, which in this pandemic have worsened. One of them is the lack of recognition of the ownership of indigenous peoples’ lands. That is a historical threat, not a recent one.”

The environmental threats that the Amazon rainforest currently faces are not minor issues—neither is the repeated disregard for the rights of indigenous communities across the region. Recurring pollution, threats to biodiversity, and degradation of quality within the basin can worsen the impact of climate change while acutely harming the daily lives of native populations. Even the governmental rulings in defense of indigenous rights can lack power should they fail to be enforced, a hazard which grows as extraction is increasingly viewed as a way to improve economic growth.

Preserving land and wildlife within the Amazon basin is essential in maintaining the globe’s environmental health. In terms of biodiversity, the region hosts 40% of the world’s rainforest, 25% of its terrestrial biodiversity, and more species of fish than any other river system on the planet. However, according to the World Wildlife Foundation, 17% of the forest in the Amazon has been lost over the past five decades. Throughout the Amazon basin, various environmental issues plague the land, including resource extraction, deforestation, oil spills, and water pollution. These detrimental events cause irreparable damage to the environment, furthering the loss of biodiversity and habitat. Such depletion poses a risk for climate change, as the Amazon is important in managing greenhouse gases, as well as people, who are negatively impacted by both pollution and a changing environment.

Meetings like the one that occurred on Tuesday are necessary—raising awareness for the acknowledgment and protection of the rights of indigenous groups, as well as the natural environment that sustains entire communities, are crucial to respecting the past, present, and future. While industrial companies contribute to a large portion of the damage, governments of countries across the world, and in South America especially, must recognize their previous agreements with native peoples. Foregoing these designated land rights will only hurt the nation as a whole, since such contempt affects international impressions of the country’s authority, the fate of the land, and the indigenous communities that suffer under such neglect. Respecting both people and nature will help establish long-term growth that cannot be found in destructive and extractive industries.