Indigenous leader warns of dire consequences if Amazon is destroyed

With less than three weeks to go until COP26, the climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, an indigenous leader of the Amazon basin appealed to the developed nations to help protect the rainforest from further destruction.

Gregorio Mirabal, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, COICA, warned that ruining the rainforest could spark a global "apocalypse".

"We are not realising that human beings have become the worst enemy of nature and of life itself. So we are simply not the best, but we have shown that we can help the world and we need everyone's help", said the indigenous leader.

Mirabal denounced the general lack of political will to guard the rainforest from further exploitation and appealed for help in order to protect the 8.4 million square kilometers of the Amazon.

"In 2050, our children will be able to bathe in this river, they will be able to see what is here, they will be able to see the trees, the biodiversity, they will be able to see those macaws slowly flying, and we will be able to drink our chicha as you have seen. This is the scenario that we are offering to the world if you help us protect 80% of the Amazon", appealed Gregorio Mirabal.

Mirabal represents 3.5 million indigenous people living in the Amazon across nine countries and territories: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.