2012's Rio+20 Earth Summit Puts World and Indigenous Leaders Face to Face

This year's Rio+2 Earth Summit, which is to take place in Rio de Janeiro between the 20-22 June, is the fourth of its kind and its main goal is that of addressing issues having to do with sustainable development.

Although this Summit was expected to be a gathering of world leaders, it seems that local communities form South America also decided to send their representatives there.

Those in charge of organizing the Rio+20 conference estimate that around 600 indigenous people will make their way here, in order to directly address national and international high officials.

Rumor has it that this would be one of the very few occasions they have to make themselves heard.

The reasons are quite clear: more often than not, these small communities are the ones that find themselves most affected by decisions taken at an international level.

To put it bluntly: since Rio+20 is to focus on coming up with ways to counteract food shortages, energy problems and the negative aspects of global climate change, it was only obvious that those who experience these problems first-hand would want to be present when others try to find solutions for them.

EurasiaReview reports that Moi Enomenga, a local leader, explained that he and his companions “will be representing thousands of indigenous communities from all over South America.”

Apparently, he also added that “not everyone can hear the voice of Mother Earth from the jungle, and we want to bring that voice to Rio.”

According to many environmentalists, in order for global leaders to succeed in their plans to implement sustainable development throughout the world, the help that indigenous peoples can offer is indispensable.

Seeing how their entire lives are spent living close to nature, there is no doubt that these indigenous communities have far better instincts when it comes to managing whatever resources nature makes available for us to use.