We want to thank the individuals and organizations that have supported us to make this conference between indigenous brothers and sisters possible.

During these four days we have been able to share our wishes, our struggle, our pain and our hope.

Above all, we have shared amongst ourselves our traditional knowledge of medicine and medicinal plants that we use for the spiritual and physical health of our peoples.

As a gesture of friendship we have walked in the forests to exchange plants and knowledge, we have gathered to drink cacao - ka- the sacred plant of the Guaymí and gift to the world and we have participated in a yagé ritual -ambiwaska- the sacred plant of the Inganos and other indigenous peoples of the Amazon foothills..

At the end of this meeting of indigenous brothers we want to make the following Declaration of Friendship and Cooperation here in Río Piro, today the 26th of July, 1998:

1. The indigenous peoples of Costa Rica and Colombia seal today a pact of friendship and union to continue walking together.
2. We share the certainty that we are creatures of the same God, the father of all the indigenous peoples and of all men, women and living beings.
3. We also share the belief that we are the sons and daughters of one mother, the Mother Earth, which we want and ought to love and care for.
4. We express that in the paths of our lives we find much suffering and sickness; we know that the Lord of Life has given us the gift of the medicinal plants and the knowledge of our traditional indigenous doctors as a way to help us to live with joy and in health.
5. We denounce the unlawful prosecution of the white man against our cultures, customs, natural resources, plants and medicines. We demand the right to make use of our plants and remedies and to seek the help we need amongst our indigenous doctors, sukias, curacas and jaibanás.
6. We affirm that, for us, the human body is sacred and we do demand that under any circumstances, in life or in death, be desecrated; above all, we request the stopping of all autopsies and indiscriminate exhumations; in the cases in which these be necessary for medical and legal reasons, we demand the proper authorization and the respect for all the necessary judicial procedures and that the body be returned to us without any mutilations, so we can give it sacred burial and veneration, according to our customs.
7. We respect and appreciate the benefits of the western medicine and ask for the support necessary to have equal access to the official health systems. We also offer to the white peoples the knowledge and benefits of our traditional indigenous doctors and of our medicinal plants, whenever they want them and in the context of mutual trust and respect.
8. We commit to continue participating in meetings and conferences that strengthen our friendship and formally we do accept the invitation to go to the house of the ingano brothers and sisters in Colombia.
9. We denounce the procedures of imposing patents and intellectual property rights over our plant resources, over our traditional knowledge and over life in general. We establish that we have these plants and these knowledge systems as collective property of the indigenous peoples. We also reject the trade of the blood, the body organs, the parts and the cells of our indigenous brothers and sisters.
10. We demand the recognition and implementation of the laws defending the autonomy of the indigenous peoples of the world, such as the article 169 of the International Labor Organization, the implementation of article 8j of the Convention of Biodiversity and we urge the approval of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations.
11. We want to commit, with the kind support of friendly individuals and organizations, to work together to defend, recover and promote our traditional medicine; to protect, plant, conserve, and exchange our medicinal plants and seeds and to facilitate the learning of our science amongst our children.
12. As a reflection of this commitment, we the traditional doctors of the Guaymí people have decided to form today the Council of Traditional Guaymí Doctors of Costa Rica, and we invite our indigenous brothers and sisters to also form their own Councils for the defense of traditional indigenous medicine.
13. We want this declaration to be disseminated and published in our communities and also in the media for the general public, so all our brothers and sisters can unite with us and support our cause: that of making possible life on this earth.

As a sign of acceptance, we the participants sign this declaration in Río Piro de Puerto Jiménez, on Julky 26^th , 1998.

Signatures

Damaris Hurtado Montezuma Gustavino Montezuma Montezuma

Luis Quiros Palacios Miguel Andrade Rodriguez

Adelia Pedrol Tigri Juanita Bejarano Santos

Yadira Marin Laurencio Mecha Pacheco

Ireno Carrera Pedron Hilario Bejarano Bejarano

Pedro Bejarano Palacios Rigoberto Carrera

Lorenzo Mendoza Jimenez Eugenio Hurtado Bejarano

Luis Atencio Pineda Natividad Mutumbajoy

Luciano Mutumbajoy Miguel Lopez Salazar