The Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI), through its Amazon Trade Union Network (ATUN), has elaborated a detailed proposal for a Decent Work Program for the Amazon, aimed at addressing the serious socio-environmental crisis plaguing the region. The initiative, prepared by Amazonian unions during a meeting in Brasilia on March 24 and 25, 2025, seeks to guarantee labour rights and promote sustainable development in the world's largest tropical forest.

The proposal was taken to representatives of the Brazilian government, including the National Secretariat for Climate Change, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), during the Pre-COP Trade Union Summit held by BWI on March 26 and 27 also in Brasilia. BWI highlights that COP30, hosted in Belém, represents a crucial opportunity to put the dimension of work at the center of the just transition and combat inequalities in the region, which is home to 48 million inhabitants.

The Amazon region faces an alarming deficit of decent work, characterized by high rates of informality; low wages and precarious jobs; poverty and extreme poverty; lack of professional training offer; land conflicts; high incidence of accidents and occupational diseases; forced and child labor; assassination of human rights defenders – including union leaders; low union density; precariousness of labour and environmental inspection.

Program demands:

The program proposed by BWI covers a set of demands to ensure dignified and sustainable work in the Amazon:

• Union Participation: Active inclusion of unions in policymaking and decision-making forums such as COP30.
• Occupational Health and Safety: Strengthening of safety measures at work and strict inspection.
• Combating Discrimination: Promotion of gender and racial equality.
• Eradication of Child and Forced Labor: Intensification of inspection and guarantee of resources for the competent agencies.
• Formalisation of Informal Work: Implementation of programs to regularize informal jobs.
• Creating Decent Jobs: Promoting jobs with social protection and professional qualification.
• Freedom of Association: Strengthening of union organisation and collective bargaining.
• Professional Training: Allocation of resources for the qualification of the workforce.
• Environmental Sustainability: Combating deforestation and promoting the certification of Amazonian products.
• Rights of Amazonian Peoples: Guarantee of territorial rights and prior consultation with indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
• Working and Production Conditions: Respect for labor rights at all stages of production and fair trade.

BWI argues that the participation of social movements and trade unions in COP30 is essential to strengthen the social dimension of sustainable development in the Amazon. The Belém Declaration, the Decent Work Programs of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth – are considered important milestones for the construction of a just and sustainable future for the region – and served as a reference for the elaboration of the Decent Work Program for the Amazon that must now be discussed with the national and local governments, employers, trade unions and local communities.

The activity is part of the project "Organizing workers in the timber value chain in the Amazon region" within the framework of PN 2022 2618 1/ DGB0018, 2023-2025, in cooperation with the DGB-Bildungswerk-Bund.