Pan-amazonian Social Forum Has Categorically Rejected the Use of the Amazon and Jaguars As Carbon Credits, Calling the Practice a Violation

We reject the use of our territories and sacred animals such as jaguars for carbon credits, since these finance the dispossession of our territories, commodify our Pachamama (Mother Earth); and greenwash the polluting industries responsible for the destruction of the Amazon and the climate crisis, such as the oil company Chevron-Texaco. Felipe Bonilla of the environmental NGO Acción Ecológica of Ecuador stated that "using animals for carbon offsets is the worst form of the current colonisation of nature, because it commodifies the most sacred beings that inhabit the rainforest. In 2026, the United Nations and conservation NG Os launched the Jaguar 2030 Roadmap to commodify and privatize jaguars and their habitat as "natural capital, including their use as carbon credits.

The plan covers 18 countries from Mexico to Argentina, mostly targets Indigenous Peoples territories, and does not exclude extractive industries or dams from the projects. Indigenous leader Marlon Santi of the Kichwa Nation of Sarayaku, former president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and co-founder of the International Campaign "Enough is Enough! Jaguars are NOT carbon credits, explained that jaguar credits are offensive to Indigenous Peoples because "in our worldview, the jaguars of the rainforest are the sacred spirits of our ancestors, so jaguars absolutely cannot be used for the carbon market.

The West doesn't understand this because it turns everything into a commodity. Nicole Auz of Quito Sin Minería (Quito Without Mining) clarified that "jaguars and whales are not offsets or carbon credits to justify or, as they say, compensate the pollution caused by oil and mining companies. The Province of Pastaza and Yasuní rainforest in Ecuador are priority areas for jaguar offset projects.

Waorani leader Alicia Cawiya from Yasuní said, "governments want to implement REDD+ and SocioBosque carbon offset programmes in our rainforest and put jaguars into the carbon market. But for the Waorani, the jaguar, the condor, the snake, lightning, thunder, and rain are our family. Hear our cry: Jaguars cannot be sold as carbon credits because that destroys our family and violates our rights.

Our beloved Amazon and our jaguars ensure our existence and the future of humanity. In addition to jaguars, lions, whales, and elephants are used for carbon credits by oil and mining companies. The UN is building a Global Carbon Market with Wild Animals. Such false solutions exacerbate global warming and could accelerate the extinction of the jaguar, the largest feline in the Americas.