The developed countries “sell that magical solution”, they invest large sums of money to continue polluting with their industries and their consumption levels and that “obviously affects us”, Jorge Stanley told Real World Radio.

Mani is also the representative of the native peoples at the FAO’s International Planning Committee for Food Sovereingty. In that capacity he participated in the latest regional consultation on the use and ownership of land and other natural resources, held in Brasilia.

In the Kunas territories, under the Panamanian state’s jurisdiction, forestation plans have been implemented such as carbon capture, which is a big “environmental business” supported even by the United Nations.

“This has changed the form of consumption in our communities. Many people think: we are dealing with money, but actually that money is the compensation for what is really happening: expropriation”.

Mining, big hydroelectric dams, expensive tourism, military bases to control social movements, are part of the same scheme of occupying the states’ sovereignty and of the sum of economic and military force to make the international capitalist system sustainable.

The Kunas believe climate change is a crossroads, since they live in islands: the Caribbean sea tide is growing and several communities will have to “return” to firm land, which implies a huge cultural change.

“The international polictics have pushed for Panama to be a pilot country in the implementation of carbon capture mechanisms, for example, which has prevented many of our communities from using the land in a sustainable way, as they have done for thousands of years”, said Mani.

“There are places where people are starving because the population cannot produce”, he said in his assessment of the FAO’s meeting.

“This space in Brasilia has been useful to share this information, to understand each other a little more. We hope that these guidelines will be binding and that they are enforced by the governments” he said.