The Rio Negro: Living Witness to the Integrity of Life

The Rio Negro, the largest tributary on the left bank of the Amazon and the seventh largest river in the world by water volume, originates in the Colombian mountains and flows approximately 2,250 kilometers until it meets the Solimões River in Manaus, where it gives rise to the Amazon River. Its dark waters, stained by acids from the slow decomposition of organic matter from the forest, are eloquent testimony to the cycles of life, death, and regeneration that have sustained the Amazon for millennia.

On its banks live dozens of indigenous peoples and traditional communities who, for centuries, have been guardians of its biodiversity and ancestral knowledge about harmonious coexistence with natural cycles. The meeting of the black waters of the Rio Negro with the muddy waters of the Solimões, which run side by side without mixing for kilometers, teaches us that different origins and trajectories can flow together while maintaining their identities as they move toward a common destiny. This lesson from nature inspires the spirit of this Declaration: the convergence of different traditions, beliefs, and peoples around a shared commitment to life.

Proclaiming this Declaration on the banks of the Rio Negro, on October 31, 2025, bringing together religious and interfaith leaders, civil society, and academia, is to recognize that the climate crisis is already manifesting in these waters, which in 2021 reached their highest recorded flood level and in 2023 their lowest level in 121 years. The Rio Negro calls us to act with the urgency of those who understand that the time for inaction has passed.

Proclaimed by religious and interfaith leaders, civil society, and academia gathered on the banks of the Rio Negro, in Manaus – Amazonas (Brazil), on October 31, 2025.

Preamble

Religious traditions and indigenous spiritualities, present on all continents and shared by more than six billion people, converge in this historic moment as humanity prepares for the 30th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP30), in the Brazilian Amazon.

This gathering represents an unprecedented opportunity to reaffirm a global ethical and spiritual commitment to the protection of life, the “Common Home,” and the most vulnerable peoples. It is a seed that is born in the Heart of the Amazon as a response to the cry of the world.

The climate crisis, which is already manifesting with increasing intensity in every corner of the planet, is not only environmental, technical, or economic—it is, above all, a spiritual, moral, and ethical crisis. It is a call to humanity’s collective consciousness, to intergenerational responsibility, and to universal solidarity, to rebuild a relationship of respect, reciprocity, and care with all forms of life.

1. Cry for Life

We daily witness the suffering of Amazonian populations and so many tropical regions: families left homeless by floods, communities affected by river contamination, children falling ill from wildfire smoke, entire communities threatened by drought and extreme heat. We cannot (and must not) accept indifference in the face of pain and destruction. We raise our voices to demand political courage and ethical commitment. We call for a new global pact for life, in which faith, science, and action walk together to restore human dignity and that of the planet.

2. Intergenerational Responsibility

The Earth is a sacred inheritance entrusted to humanity to be cared for and transmitted to future generations. It is a moral and spiritual duty to ensure that the next generations receive a habitable and fertile planet—we inherited a garden, we must not bequeath a desert. Global leaders must adopt concrete and binding goals to limit global warming, ensure just and accessible climate financing, and respect the rights of indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, and traditional communities, guardians of biodiversity and ancestral wisdom.

3. Transition to Regenerative Economies

The extractivist logic that exploits the Earth as an infinite resource must be replaced by regenerative models, based on reciprocity, simplicity, and balance with natural cycles. We must promote an economy that values and encourages those who conserve, restore, and share—not those who destroy. True prosperity is that which includes the well-being of all creatures, not just financial indicators.

4. Integrity of Life: People, Planet, and Prosperity

There is no human prosperity without the health of ecosystems. The climate crisis is simultaneously spiritual, social, and economic, and requires responses that integrate care for the Earth and care for the poor. Overcoming the false dichotomy between development and conservation is essential: there is no sustainable future without an integral ecological consciousness.

5. Cooperation and Shared Responsibility

No nation, tradition, or sector can face the climate crisis alone. Unprecedented collaboration between governments, the private sector, religious communities, indigenous peoples, and civil society is necessary. Interreligious and intercultural dialogue combined with building partnerships and coalitions are pathways to peace, equity, solidarity, protection of human dignity for everyone everywhere, and are also a transformative force for global climate action.

ABOUT THE DECLARATION

The Rio Negro Declaration results from a collaborative construction involving people linked to various religious, interfaith, civil society, and academic institutions. Through a participatory process, the document was symbolically adopted in Manaus, Amazonas (Brazil), on October 31, 2025, on the banks of the Rio Negro. The Declaration is an open instrument, available for use by any person, community, or movement committed to defending life in all its forms.

The document is grounded in a rich tradition of statements and perspectives on environment and climate, including religious texts, declarations, encyclicals, covenants, commitments, reports, and experiences from numerous religious, spiritual, ethical, and cultural traditions.

Among the movements and initiatives that inspired this dialogical process, the following stand out: Rede Amazonizar, G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20), Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI), Faith for Earth Initiative, Institute for the Study of Religion (ISER) and its Faith in Climate initiative, Association of Indigenous Women of the Upper Rio Negro - Numiã Kurá (AMARN), Witoto Institute, Climate Action Program of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Ecumenical and Interfaith Tapiri, Ecumenical Coordination of Service (CESE), Faith for Biodiversity initiative, Al-Mizan, Faith Pavilion, World Evangelical Alliance, Tearfund, United Religions Initiative (URI), Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), Laudato Si’ Movement, Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), Integral Ecology Commission of the Archdiocese of Manaus, Pan-Amazonian Articulation of Traditional Peoples of African Matrix (ARATRAMA), International Christian Service of Solidarity with the Peoples of Latin America “Bishop Óscar A. Romero” (SICSAL), National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), and Brazilian Center of Studies in Law and Religion (CEDIRE).