Brazil | July 14, 2026
By Caroline Takita, CEO of eAmazonia and member of Swissnex’s Expert Network in Brazil (this piece was written for “The Long View” section of Swissnex’s nature-focused newsletter Canopy)
The Parintins Festival, one of Brazil’s largest cultural celebrations, has just reminded us that the Amazon is far more than a forest. Each June, tens of thousands gather in the Amazonian city of Parintins for a spectacular celebration of music, dance, and regional traditions. In September, the Sairé Festival brings together Indigenous, religious, and folkloric traditions in the riverside town of Alter do Chão. In December, the music festival Psica transforms Belém into a showcase for contemporary Amazonian culture. Together, these festivals celebrate creativity, community, and a living territory that is constantly reinventing itself.
Recent initiatives, including the launch of a new brand identity for Amazonia commissioned by Brazil’s tourism authorities, are encouraging more people to discover the region. I hope they do. Better yet, I hope these people become curious about local stories told in the first person. Voices such as Txai Suruí, whose National Geographic documentary The Territory brought Indigenous perspectives to global audiences, and initiatives like Amazônia Vox, a collective of local journalists reporting from within the region, remind us that the Amazon is best told by those who live it. Local protagonism is about authorship, legitimacy, and the freedom to shape how the region is understood by the world.
The Amazon cannot be reduced to an exotic destination or an untouched wilderness. It is also a place of business, entrepreneurship, creativity, science, and world-class research. Its cities are home to leading universities, research institutes, startups, artists, innovators, and companies working alongside Indigenous peoples, riverine peoples, quilombola communities, and many other traditional peoples and communities. Across the Pan-Amazon, different knowledge systems coexist, challenge one another, and inspire new approaches to climate, biodiversity, health, food systems, and the economy.
I am not from the Amazon, but every visit has changed the way I think about innovation, leadership, and the future. Co-creating the future begins with learning to coexist with one another and with nature, respecting different rhythms and boundaries: fundamentals for healthy relationships. In the end, we only care for what we love. And we only love what we know. Perhaps that is the real invitation: to know, to care, and to care enough to act. Whether through travel, conversation, research, friendship, or collaboration, every encounter helps expand what is possible. Together, we can co-create more just, plural, and vibrant futures.
What if the future is ancestral? What kind of ancestor do we choose to become?