Sônia Guajajara

Indigenous Brazilian leader fighting for Amazon preservation and rights of the Guarani-Kaiowá people

Sônia Guajajara (b. 1978) is a Brazilian indigenous rights activist and environmental advocate from the Amazon's Guarani-Kaiowá tribe. As founder of APIB (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), she has led global campaigns against deforestation and illegal mining in the Amazon. Her 2019 UN speech warning of the Amazon's collapse went viral, sparking international awareness. She pioneered the Indigenous Territories Protection Network, which uses satellite technology to monitor illegal activities in 300+ indigenous reserves. In 2021, she co-developed the Amazon Climate Pact with European leaders, securing $1.5 billion in conservation funding. Her work has been documented in the Netflix documentary 《The Amazon: Last Call》 (2022) and she advises the WWF on biodiversity strategies. Despite death threats from loggers, she continues organizing youth climate strikes like the Amazon March that mobilized 200,000 people in 2023. Her advocacy directly influenced Brazil's 2022 Indigenous Digital Sovereignty Law, granting tribes control over data collection in their territories.