{"id":58773,"date":"2025-09-02T07:34:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=58773"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:51:07","slug":"recognising-and-celebrating-the-true-stewards-of-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blog\/58773\/recognising-and-celebrating-the-true-stewards-of-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognising and celebrating the true stewards of the environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Messages of solidarity, defiance, and hope from the world\u2019s great tropical forests <\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Women from the Papuan indigenous community prepare for a welcome dance at the ceremony for the Forest Defender Camp participants in Sira Village, Saifi district, South Sorong Regency, Southern West Papua. Greenpeace Indonesia hold a Forest Defender Camp to train Indigenous Peoples\u2019 youth from various communities to protect the Papuan forest in Papua Island.
\u00a9 Jurnasyanto Sukarno \/ Greenpe<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

This August, we celebrated Indigenous Peoples Month, and we will keep celebrating and amplifying Indigenous People as we build up to COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference,\u00a0 in Brazil where they must be heard. Here are three powerful messages of defiance and hope from Indigenous Leaders living in and protecting the three great tropical forests of the world. These messages are profound in and of themselves, but together, they represent the growing transnational movement of Indigenous solidarity and leadership that can inspire and guide us all.<\/p>\n\n

As pessimism dampens our collective sights, we can and must turn to such perspectives –  those rooted in a longer history and the deepest values of kinship and community. As the illogic of capitalism and colonialism fails everyone but the elite, we must learn from Indigenous ways of seeing, being, knowing and doing.  <\/p>\n\n

Congo Basin<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

\u201cMy tribe, the Tshwa, has lived in harmony with the forest for generations. We know its plants, its spirits, its secrets. And yet, in the minds of many decision-makers, we are still seen as \u2018sub-citizens,\u2019 obstacles to development, shadows in the trees.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

These words come from Valentin Engobo Mufia, a father and leader in his seventh decade of life. Hailing from Lokolama in the equatorial forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mufia speaks about the importance of protecting the forest<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe peatlands we have protected for centuries are among the most vital carbon sinks on Earth. They are a natural barrier against climate chaos. And yet, instead of listening to us, we are sidelined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Mufia says it\u2019s long past the time for empty words and gestures. He shares his community\u2019s demands:<\/p>\n\n