We’re at the end of Rio+20, the grandly-named United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, twenty years on from the landmark Earth Summit of 1992.
If anyone was relying on Rio+20 as a landmark I would suggest investing in a satnav, because the only thing remarkable about this landmark is its insignificance.
Cynicism aside, parallel to the UN conference was the People’s Summit, an hour away in Rio’s Flamengo Park, where there was visibly more commitment, passion and action. It was at the People’s Summit that the indigenous delegations spent most of their time, and they were a powerful and influential presence. They drew massive support and respect from the general public. More than 1,500 indigenous people from all over Brazil, South America and the world were here.
Though our Just Giving campaign to raise funds to help some of the communities we work with to attend was a massive disappointment, we did receive substantial grants from the Roddick Foundation and Artists Project Earth at the last minute, which helped two communities to send representatives whose voices would not otherwise have been heard. We extend our thanks from them to the few who did donate; your money went to help feed those who were here when it became apparent that the food provided for them was both very poor quality and vastly insufficient.
Inevitably there was much discussion and several peaceful but forceful actions about the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, which is moving ahead despite legal challenges from Brazil’s public prosecutors, the UN and the Inter American Committee on Human Rights. We went to the launch of ‘Xingu: A Declaration of War’, a full-length documentary film. I recommend it to anyone interested in indigenous peoples, human rights, the Amazon environment – or sustainable development – it runs 1hr 44mins, is free to distribute and is sobering. Because we know practically all of the people who feature in the film personally, we can vouch for its accuracy in representing their views. Here’s the link to the site:
You can see some of Sue Cunningham’s photos from Rio+20 on her commercial website:
Sue Cunningham Photographic Rio+20 Photo Galleries
and Patrick Cunningham submitted a report to the Latin America Bureau website: