Tapajós Lives!

Amid a constant bombardment of socio-environmental barbarities, every struggle that halts setbacks must be celebrated. If the current moment of humanity does not allow for advances in biodiversity conservation, environmental protection, and improvements in the way of life of 99% of the global population, then simply preventing things from getting worse is reason enough to rekindle hope we can contain the damage and build the conditions to ultimately reverse the catastrophe of the capitalocene.

Even so, we must recognize that certain impacts are irreversible, at least within the short lifespan of the coming generations. The climate will not return to what it was before the industrialization imposed by Europe. The soils of deforested areas will not be the same after so much synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Ecosystems will not be the same without the hundreds of species driven to extinction in recent decades. Rivers, too, will not be the same for many generations, burdened by heavy metals from mining and by the dredging of their riverbeds to facilitate the flow of cheap raw materials to the center of capitalism.

In fact, this was the role that former colonial powers imposed on the territories they invaded, and some of them, like Brazil, continue to follow this script to the letter even after centuries. The commodity changes from timber, gold, and rubber to corn and soy, but the logic remains the same. Instead of planning local processing of raw materials to meet social demands while respecting environmental limits and biodiversity, neocolonial mechanisms deepen through major free trade agreements.

This international demand for cheap raw materials pressures the development of infrastructure that, in most cases, is incompatible with the cycles of nature and with the aspirations of local populations. And this is exactly the case with the waterway privatization and the dredging plan for the Tapajós River. Promoted by the Brazilian government and coordinated with agribusiness companies, the United States and the European Union, the only ones not consulted were those who live along the river and depend on it for their daily livelihood.

This dredging bid was launched without consulting the local Indigenous and riverine communities, which led to 33 uninterrupted days of intense mobilizations between January and February. After a series of demonstrations and the occupation of the Cargill port in Santarém (PA), the confrontation not only halted the dredging bid but also secured the revocation of Decree 12,600/2025, which had provided for the privatization of waterway processes in the Madeira, Tocantins, and Tapajós rivers.

With this, Indigenous peoples and a few local political organizations showed that it is possible and necessary to organize struggles against major socio-environmental setbacks. While the president, his party, and their entire orbit of social movements were celebrating Carnival, the peoples who live from the Tapajós gave a lesson in hope, winning this important battle. And now they celebrate, not with costumes and parades, but with the sobriety of fulfilling the hard task of saving a piece of the world. It is up to us to organize to save the rest.