By Abdullahi Lukman
The XII Pan-Amazonian Social Forum has rejected the use of jaguars and the Amazon rainforest as carbon credits, arguing that the practice commodifies nature, threatens Indigenous rights and territories, and presents a false response to the climate crisis.
The declaration, adopted at the forum’s closing ceremony, was supported by more than 2,500 Indigenous, Afro-descendant, peasant, feminist and youth representatives from the nine Amazonian countries. Participants criticized carbon markets and so-called “jaguar credits,” saying they could allow major polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases while presenting environmentally harmful activities as climate solutions.
The forum’s Puyuk Political Declaration condemned what it described as a capitalist development model based on the commodification and appropriation of nature. It specifically rejected carbon markets and conservation schemes linked to jaguars, which critics say can operate in Indigenous territories without addressing the fossil-fuel and mining activities driving the climate crisis.
Women’s groups at the forum also opposed jaguar offsets, warning that they could contribute to the dispossession of Indigenous communities, commercialize culturally sacred animals and “greenwash” industries responsible for Amazon destruction.
Environmental activist Felipe Bonilla of Ecuador’s Acción Ecológica described the use of animals in carbon offsets as an extreme form of commodifying nature. Indigenous leaders similarly stressed that jaguars hold deep spiritual and cultural significance and cannot be treated as tradable commodities.
The controversy comes as international conservation initiatives expand the concept of “natural capital” and explore markets involving wildlife and their habitats. Jaguar-related projects are being promoted across several Amazonian countries, including areas of Ecuador such as Pastaza and Yasuní.
Indigenous leaders in the region argue that such projects threaten their rights and relationship with the forest. Waorani representatives, for example, say jaguars are part of their family and spiritual world and should not be placed in carbon markets.
The forum concluded that protecting the Amazon and its wildlife requires reducing pollution and ending destructive activities, rather than assigning monetary values to sacred animals and using them to offset emissions from fossil-fuel and mining industries.
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