The Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), together with the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), the Amazonian Network for Intercultural Bilingual Education (REIBA), the Amazonian University Program (PUAM), the Pan-Amazonian Jesuit Service (SJPAM), and the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women (CLAR), held the third and final webinar in the series “A Church with an Amazonian Face Leading Up to the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA)”, a space for formation and discernment that brought together participants from across the Pan-Amazon region to delve deeper into the defense of life, peoples, and territories.
Titled “Amazonian Territories: Defending Life, Peoples, and Governance”, the event provided an opportunity to reflect on the complex reality facing the Amazon, marked by the advance of extractivism, human rights violations, and the climate crisis, but also by the resistance of indigenous peoples, community-based alternatives, and the Church’s commitment to caring for our Common Home.
The Amazon crisis is also a crisis of civilization
The first presentation was given by Sister Mónica Benavides, HDV, a religious sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Will, a member of the Pastos and Quillacinga indigenous peoples of Colombia, and a doctor of theology.
During her presentation, she explained that the climate crisis cannot be understood solely as an environmental problem, but rather as an expression of a crisis of civilization that challenges the dominant development model and the relationship humanity has established with nature.
“The climate crisis is a significant manifestation of the current crisis of civilization. It calls into question the dominant development model and the relationship that contemporary societies have established with nature,” she stated.
The nun noted that the Amazon is much more than a vast tropical forest. It is a cultural, political, and spiritual territory where hundreds of indigenous peoples, rural communities, and Afro-descendant communities have built sustainable ways of living in harmony with nature.
Amazomorphosis: Two Paths for the Future of the Amazon
One of the main contributions of her reflection was the concept of “amazomorphosis”, understood as the accelerated process of transformation of the Amazonian ecosystem and the social fabrics that inhabit it.
Sister Mónica identified two dynamics currently coexisting in the region.
On the one hand, regressive Amazomorphosis, characterized by territorial dispossession, the expansion of extractive industries, the loss of biodiversity, and violence against communities.
On the other hand, there is the amazomorphosis of resilience, represented by the initiatives of Amazonian peoples that strengthen territorial autonomy, community governance, the defense of rights, and the protection of biodiversity.
“The Amazon is at a decisive moment full of possibilities for its territories and peoples. Today we have the opportunity to choose what kind of Amazon we want to build,” she said.
She also emphasized that Amazonian spirituality constitutes an essential dimension of the peoples’ lives, as it understands existence as a network of relationships where rivers, forests, animals, and human beings are part of the same community of life—in deep harmony with the vision of integral ecology set forth in Laudato si’.
Extractive Threats Violate Fundamental Rights
The second presentation was given by Ximena Lombana, executive secretary of REPAM, who presented the main findings of the regional reports on human rights violations prepared by the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network.
She explained that activities such as legal and illegal mining, oil extraction, hydroelectric dams, monoculture farming, deforestation, and illicit economies continue to exacerbate river pollution, land loss, forced displacement, and the criminalization of those who defend the Amazon.
Among the rights most affected, she highlighted the right to health, to water, to a healthy environment, to cultural identity, to food, to participation, and to the self-determination of indigenous peoples.
She also emphasized the need to strengthen community monitoring systems, integrate scientific knowledge with ancestral wisdom, and promote advocacy processes that enable action before the damage becomes irreversible.
Resistance Springs from the Territories
As an example of hope, she shared the experience in the Colombian municipalities of Morelia and Valparaíso, in the department of Caquetá, where rural communities succeeded in halting the advance of an oil project through community organizing, technical studies, and a sit-in that lasted 66 days.
“Water was the founding principle that enabled people to organize,” she recalled.
For Lombana, defending the territory requires building a common roadmap that strengthens regional advocacy and promotes fossil-fuel-free territories, linking environmental justice with peacebuilding.
Defending water is defending life
The third presentation was given by Lucy Urbina, national coordinator of REPAM Ecuador, who shared various experiences from Ecuador’s Amazonian vicariates in the defense of rivers and territories.
She noted that for Amazonian peoples, water is not an economic resource, but a deeply spiritual and cultural reality.
“When we speak of water, we speak of life, of memory, of spirituality, and of the possibility of continuing to exist as peoples,” she stated.
During her presentation, she described the challenges communities face due to mining, oil exploitation, deforestation, hydroelectric dams, and various regulatory reforms that undermine safeguards for the protection of their territories.
She also presented initiatives led by the Amazonian Church, such as supporting communities affected by oil spills, defending the Cofanes River, the emblematic case of the Mecheros, protecting the Hatun Yaku River, and the “Río Puyo con Derechos” campaign, among other initiatives that demonstrate growing coordination among communities, vicariates, and social organizations.
Religious Life, Called to “Amazonize” Cities
During the dialogue with participants, a reflection emerged on the role of religious life carrying out its mission in urban contexts.
Ximena Lombana called for “amazonizing” cities, strengthening awareness of the Amazon’s importance for all humanity and supporting territorial struggles through formation, advocacy, and solidarity.
For her part, Lucy Urbina highlighted the witness of many religious men and women who actively participate in marches, civic processes, and actions to defend the territory, integrating faith with social commitment.
A Synodal Journey Toward the 12th FOSPA
This third meeting concluded the series of webinars “A Church with an Amazonian Face on the Path to the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum”, a joint initiative of CEAMA, REPAM, REIBA, PUAM, SJPAM, and CLAR that has promoted spaces for listening, formation, and discernment to strengthen the presence and advocacy of the Amazonian Church in the region’s social and territorial processes.
Participants agreed that the 12th Pan-Amazonian Social Forum (FOSPA), to be held from August 16 to 21 in Puyo (Ecuador), represents an opportunity to consolidate alliances among indigenous peoples, communities, social organizations, and ecclesial bodies, thereby strengthening a form of governance that places life, socio-environmental justice, and care for our Common Home at the center.
The webinar concluded with a conviction shared by all participants: the Amazon cannot continue to be considered a sacrificial zone. Its defense is a collective responsibility that calls upon the Church, the peoples, and all of humanity to build—through hope and synodality—a future where life is always the priority.