With the participation of around 75 religious leaders and faith communities, scientists and representatives of allied organizations, on June 13 the Interreligious Initiative for Tropical Forests officially installed the local chapter IRI-Bogotá.
The conference, which took place at the Radisson Merotel Hotel, marked a milestone in its territorial intervention strategy, by adding religious leaders and faith communities of the country’s capital to the action and defense of tropical forests.
“Bogotá has the duty and the opportunity to be an epicenter of spiritual, environmental and political advocacy for the Amazon. What is at stake is not a distant landscape, it is our water, our peace and our air,” said Blanca Lucía Echeverry, national coordinator of IRI-Colombia, who explained to the attendees the mission lines, strategies, achievements and challenges of the Initiative.
The academic agenda of the meeting began with the panel “Faith and science in dialogue for the defense and restoration of the Amazon: theology and governance of water”, which included the participation of Reverend Loida Sardiñas, Ph.D. in Theology and academic at the Javeriana University, and Mauricio Madrigal, professor at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de los Andes and specialist in political advocacy at WWF Colombia. During the discussion, the academics highlighted the role of spirituality, water justice and collective action for water.
Secondly, the scientist Carlos Rivera Rondón, Ph.D. in Fundamental and Applied Ecology, professor at the Javeriana University and researcher at the Javeriano Water Institute, in a keynote speech addressed the vital connection between the Amazon and the water cycle of Bogotá.
Finally, during the panel “The Amazon and Bogota: The Challenges of an Ignored Relationship”, academics María Daniela Pulido and Liven Fernando Martínez, moderated by David Ricardo Flórez, senior policy advisor at Rainforest Foundation Norway, referred to the capital’s ecosystem dependence on the Amazon and the urgency of translating this connection into public policies and citizen awareness.
In addition, IRI-Colombia presented the communications campaign “Without forests there is no future”, which seeks to join forces to take the message of protection of the Amazonian tropical forests to more corners of the country.
IRI-Bogotá joins IRI’s 46 local chapters, located in 15 municipalities of Caquetá, Guaviare, Meta, and Putumayo, where tropical forests face the greatest threats.
With this new core of work, the Initiative reaffirms that the defense of the Amazon begins in each territory and Bogotá, as the spiritual, political and cultural capital of the country, has a decisive role in its protection.
