San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México
June 14-17, 2001
The 171 organizations from 16 countries gathered here declare:

We are committed to the respect for life, culture and environment. Under this common goal we declare our commitment to:

• The protection of Mother Nature, understood as a living being, and as the inalienable patrimony of every millenary culture;
• The defense of all life, and of all biological and cultural diversity;
• The declaration of the sites of origin as patrimony of humanity, laying the responsibility over their universal custody upon those who's sustenance depends on them, and prohibiting their private appropriation;
• The recovery and strengthening of the ancestral knowledge of our peoples;
• A law for the protection of natural and genetic resources, issued upon the consultation with the indigenous peoples;
• The government's respect for the natural and mineral resources of the peoples;
• Support for all national and international movements aimed at conserving, protecting and valuing biodiversity;
• The launching and implementation of alternative production projects, as well as the encouragement of cooperation based on our experiences;
• The respect for alimentary sovereignty, for agro-ecological production, and for the peoples' right to self-sustained food provision; in other words, the right to produce our own food;
• The recovery of our regional seeds, the right to produce our corn at a fair price, and to trade and store our regional plants;
• Fair prices for our products;
• In accordance with the alimentary sovereignty, our joining in with the use of natural pesticides, and the development and strengthening of organic agriculture; also, the strengthening of our practice of multiple crop cultivation;
• The national States' respect for the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples and for their access to biological resources;
• The national States' fulfillment of their commitments toward human rights, acquired through international treaties, especially those concerning alimentary security;
• The national States' implementation of organic agricultural programs, as well as the training that may be required;
• The revision of international codes for intellectual property, specifically the Agreement on Rights over Intellectual Property, related to the commercial affairs of the World Commerce Organization and the Commercial Treaties;
• The promulgation, within the context of human rights, of the rights of consumers and agricultural producers;
• The creation of a Popular Development Plan, democratic, culturally and ecologically sustainable, based upon the needs of the communities, and in which the investment projects are submitted for consultation to the general society;
• The respect for the autonomy of the peoples' of all countries with respect to the construction of their developmental models;
• The creation of networks of cooperation to face projects that affect the sovereignty and well being of peoples;
• The legal recognition of indigenous peoples;
• The presidential veto against the Barttlet-Cevallos-Ortega Constitutional Reform on Indigenous Rights and Culture, approved by the Federal Congress;
• The fulfillment of the San Andrés Accords through the COCOPA Initiative for Constitutional Reform and the 169th Agreement of the International Labor Organization;
• The realization of an Agrarian Reform;
• An education that awakens the responsibility to follow the teachings of our cultures and fosters the love for the land;
• The right and access to information about the products we consume, and the improvement of our crops and ways of life;
• The right and access to information regarding agreements, megaprojects and commercial treaties;
• The dissemination of information, carrying it over to all levels: international, regional, municipal and communal;

Based on all the foregoing reasons, we REJECT:

• The patents over living matter;
• The use of agro-chemicals;
• The production, commercialization, and consumption of transgenic products, which only increase the fortunes of transnational corporations, while negatively affecting biodiversity;
• The high prices for agricultural products and the loss of our lands and territories;
• The pollution of our planet;
• The biopiracy, the exploitation and destruction of our land and territories;
• The practice of mono-crop cultivation and the plantations that alter our ecosystems;
• The harassment, invasion and plundering of our wealth and natural resources;
• The project of exploitation of the biological corridor, as well as the exclusion and expulsion of our peoples as a consequence of the policy of Protected Natural Areas;
• The neoliberal, big business policy that poisons us with agro-toxic products;
• The Puebla-Panamá Plan, with all its implications in detriment of our peoples, the biodiversity, and the natural and cultural resources;
• Anything that threatens our peoples' lives;
• The sweatshops;
• The Bartlett-Cevallos-Ortega Constitutional Reform on Indigenous Rights and Culture, approved by the Federal Congress;
• The government programs that generate divisions and disorganization amongst our communities;
• The introduction and consumption of junk food and drinks;
• The Law Initiative on Access to Genetic Resources, currently in the Senate;

Specific DEMANDS:

• We demand from the Government of Guatemala and from the World Bank the repair to all the damage caused by the Chixoy Dam on the Río Negro;
• We demand the repair to all damages caused by the construction of great dams, which have affected 60 million people so far, 3.5 million people currently being displaced by the megaprojects;
• We join efforts with other networks, like Via Campesina and the Latinoamerican Coordinator of Peasant Organizations (CLOC), in their demands for life projects based on biodiversity;
• We reject Mexican President Vicente Fox's assertion that the Puebla-Panamá Plan is worth 1000 times more than any indigenous community, evidence of the mercantilist and capitalist nature in command his heart.

The undersigning organizations:

Adivima; Alianza Cívica Chiapas; ARIC INDEPENDIENTE; Arrieros; Artesana de Flor de Margarita; ASCRA; Asociación Católica; Caminos Sin Fronteras; Casa de la Ciencia; Casa Maya; CDH Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas; CECACI; CECCAM; CEDFOG; CEDIAC; CEIBA; CENAMI; Centro de Derechos Humanos „uú Jikandii; Centro de Educación para la Salud Santa María; CEPAFOS; Chilan Balam; Chiltak; Chimalapas Unidos por la Defensa Etnobiodiversidad; CIAM; CICE; CIDECA; CIEPAC; CIOAC; Citricultores Tancanthuitz; CODIMUJ; Colectivo de trabajo de Nashinich; Colectivo de Trabajo de Italohuitz; Comisión Ecuménica Diocesis SCLC; Comité de Campesinos Pobres; Comité de Desarrollo de San Andrés; Comité de Emergencia San Juan Del Bosque; Comité de Solidaridad con la Rebelión Zapatista; Comité Noruego de Solidaridad con América Latina; COMPITCH; Coopera tú; Coordinadoras Regionales de la Sociedad Civil en Resistencia; Copider Chiapas A.C.; CORECO; Cáritas de San Cristóbal de Las Casas; Cáritas Tapachula; DECOPAZ-CECI; Defensoría del Derecho a la Salud; Derechos en Acción; Derechos Humanos de Tenejapa; Derechos Humanos Diocesanos; DESMI; Diócesis de San Cristóbal; Diócesis de Tapachula; EAPSEC A.C.; Educe; EDUPAZ; Enlace y Comunicación; Escuela Guaquitepec; Etnobiología para la Conservación, A.C.; Fomento Cultural y Educativo; Frente de Campesinos en Lucha por la Tierra ; Heinrich Boll Foundation; León XIII Foundation; Fundadese; Global Exchange; Greenpeace; Grupo de reflexión de Amatenango del Valle; Group of Solidarity with Chiapas, Switzerland; ICS Consorcio; IJATZ; IMAP; INCMNSZ; Iniciativas Nubiselva; Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP); Ishi Ktak Asushé Buká; Iteso; Ixim Casa de la Solidaridad Zabaldi; Jardín de Orquídeas San Cristóbal; Junax; Las Abejas; Las Golondrinas; LEMNA; Maderas del Pueblo; Madre Tierra ; Magisterio Democrático de la Región de los Altos, Secundarias Técnicas Sección 7 SNTE; Mama Maquin; Maya Ik; Melel Xojobal; Misión de Guadalupe; Movimiento de Izquierda Libertario; Movimiento de los trabajadores Rurales sin Tierra ; Movimiento Mundial por los Bosques Tropicales; Movimiento Nacional de Salud Popular, región Tabasco; Mugarik Gabe; Muuch Kambal; Médicos del Mundo; Ocez-Cnpa Fra. Comalapa; OCOMICH; ODASPICH; ODETIT; Ojo del Sur; Oletik; OMIECH; OMITCH; Omitech; OPTRAMACH; Organización de Médicos Tradicionales de Cancuc; Organización de Médicos Tradicionales de la Sierra; Organización Lucha Campesina; OXFAM Australia; Parroquia Democracia; Parroquia Huitiupán; Parroquia Independencia; Parroquia La Libertad; Parroquia Poza Rica; Parroquia San Andrés; Parroquia San Fermín; Parroquia Tenejapa; Parroquia Zinacantán; Pastoral de El Bosque; Pastoral Social; Produssep Sureste; Programa La Neta; Proimmse - Unam; Promotoras de Salud de Tenejapa; Proyecto de Medios; RAFI; Red de Abogadas y Abogados por los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas Radpi; Red de Maíz; Red Proderechos de la Educación y la Salud; Regiones Autónomas Pluriétnicas; Ricaa; RMALC; Río Sqisal; S.C. Tzeltal Tzotzil; S.S.S. Lagos de Colores; SADEC; Santo Tomás; Saqbé; Serapaz San Cristóbal; SERPAJ; Servicios Sociales Solidarios Imelda Tijerina S.S.S.I.T; Sindicato de Trabajadores Indígenas del Edo. De Chiapas; Sindicato Democrático de la Pesca y Acuacultura; Sipaz; Soc. Coop. Xulum Chun Artesanas; Sociedad Civil de zona campesina de Comitán; Sociedad Interamericana de Educ. y Cap. Ambiental CIECA; SSS Nuevo Milenio; Technología Mundi; Tojtzotze Li Maya; Transparencia; UAM Xochimilco-MDR; Ucizoni; Umbrella House; Unem; University of Bemidji; University of California; Universidad of Colorado; University of Milano; University of New Mexico; University of Paris; Universidad Iberoamericana; Universidad Iberoamericana Laguna; Laval University; Metropolitan University of Manchester; Unión de Milperos Tradicionales; Unión lucha y progreso; UNOSJO S.C.; Xinich; Yib Jteklum a.c;

Participating Countries: Brazil, Canada, Spain, U.S.A., El Salvador, Scottland, France, Euskal Herria, Guatemala, Greece, England, Italy, Norway, Swizerland, Uruguay, Mexico (Federal States of: Campeche, Coahuila, Chiapas, D.F, Estado de México, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Veracruz y Yucatán).

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México,
June 17, 2001

Translated by Agustin Avila-Sakar and Jennifer Struna