Protests by greens and indigenous groups overshadowed debate on the world's environment at the Rio 20 United Nations summit here on Thursday, while celebrities clamoured for a sanctuary to protect the riches of the Arctic, news reports said.

Indigenous peoples from five countries told the UN Rio+20 summit that the green economy is a "crime against humanity" that 'dollarises' Mother Nature and strips communities of their rights. Native peoples gathered in Rio for a counter-summit issued a declaration blasting the goals pursued by world leaders attending the official UN Rio+20 summit on sustainable development.

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The indigenous peoples have been attending a parallel "People's Summit," an initiative of 200 ecological groups and social movements from around the world. They comprise 400 representatives of 20 Brazilian indigenous groups, including Guaranis, Tikunas, Tukanos, Gavioes, Kayapos, Xavantes and Bororos, as well as 1,200 natives from Canada, the United States, Colombia and Nicaragua.

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"We cannot allow false solutions to destroy the Earth's balance, assassinate the seasons, unleash severe weather havoc, privatise life and threaten the very survival of humanity," the Kari-Oca 2 declaration said.

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"We see the goals of Rio+20, the 'Green Economy' and its premise that the world can only 'save' nature by commodifying its life-giving and life-sustaining capacities as a continuation of the colonialism that indigenous peoples and our Mother Earth have faced and resisted for 520 years," the declaration said.

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Rio+20 marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit - a landmark gathering that opened the debate on the future of the planet and its resources.

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Indigenous people prepare to board an underground train as they commute to the People's Summit for Social and Environmental Justice in Defence of the Commons, a parallel event during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de JaneiroPicture: Felipe Dana/AP

An indigenous man stands in a subway train as he makes his way to the People's Summit at Rio+20 for Social and Environmental Justice in Rio de JaneiroPicture: REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

A Brazilian indigenous man participates in a protest against the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plantPicture: REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

A member of a Brazilian indigenous group attends a march to deliver a declaration to leaders attending the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, in Rio de Janeiro, BrazilPicture: Andre Penner/AP

Picture: Xinhua /Landov / Barcroft Media

Picture: Andre Penner/AP

Picture: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/GettyImages

Picture: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/GettyImages

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A Canadian indigenous chief is stopped by a Brazilian soldier upon arrival at RioCentro for the handing over of the Kari-Oca II DeclarationPicture: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/GettyImages

A brewing regional crisis also prompted South American presidents at the summit to hold emergency talks where they decided to rush foreign ministers to Paraguay in an attempt to shore up democracy in the troubled state, AFP reported.On its penultimate day, UN chief Ban Ki-moon defended the first summit on sustainable development in a decade as "the beginning of a journey."The event "will lead to a more sustainable future for ourselves and for generations to come," he said.But the gathering came under fire from the leftist presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador, along with indigenous peoples, who said capitalist greed lurked beneath its promotion of the green economy.Bolivian President Evo Morales described the green economy as "a new colonialism" that rich nations sought to impose on developing countries."Countries of the north are getting rich through a predatory orgy and are forcing countries of the south to be their poor rangers," he said."They want to create intervention mechanisms to monitor and assess our national policies using environmental concerns as an excuse."Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, also pressed African countries to protect their mineral wealth from transnational companies.In an interview with AFP, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador accused rich countries of "looting the planet, consuming environmental assets freely."Indigenous peoples gathered for a counter-summit issued a declaration describing the green economy as "a crime against humanity and the Earth" by dollarising nature and stripping communities of their rights.Greenpeace announced that ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, actress Penelope Cruz and director Robert Redford joined a campaign for a "global sanctuary" around the North Pole.The celebrities are among the first 100 names on a planned million-signature scroll that Greenpeace wants to place on the seabed beneath Earth's northernmost point.The goal is to counter nationalist claims on the North Pole and preserve the heart of the Arctic Ocean from a carve-up for resources.The shrinkage of Arctic ice through global warming has led to jostling over sea routes and access to the sea bed, believed to be rich in hydrocarbons and minerals.At Friday's close, the 190-nation summit is due to endorse a lengthy statement vowing to tackle Earth's environmental problems and entrenched poverty."This is a very good document, this is the vision on which we can build our dreams, our visions and it is important that the member states are united and work together," Ban said.But the Elders, a group of respected former leaders, environmental activists and poverty alleviation campaigners, slammed the draft as lacking ambition.Mary Robinson, the former Irish president and ex-UN high commissioner for human rights, described it as "a failure of leadership" while former Norwegian premier Gro Harlem Brundtland said its "omission of reproductive rights is a step backwards.""The failure of Rio 20 is a call for action which will give the people more energy to mobilise in the future," said Greenpeace political director Daniel Mittler, who called the summit an "epic failure.""We are losing species hundreds, maybe a thousand times faster than natural evolution. We are creating a huge ecological debt. It's payback time," WWF International's executive director Lasse Gustavsson said.Separately, Paraguay's opposition-controlled Congress voted yesterday to impeach President Fernando Lugo for his role in deadly clashes to evict landless farmers.Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, speaking after an emergency meeting in Rio of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), said the bloc would immediately fly a team of foreign ministers to Asuncion to shore up that country's "stability (and) democracy."-- BERNAMA-NNN-AGENCIES An indigenous man talks on a mobile phone at the Kari-Oca village constructed as a counterpoint to the Rio+20 conference in Rio de Janeiro, BrazilPicture: Mario Tama/Getty Images