If there is one image that embodies COP30, this year's global climate change conference in Belem, Brazil, it could be this: Indigenous activists in traditional dress and regalia rush past security into a safe zone set up for international negotiators and pre-approved delegates.
The action took place on the second day of COP30 and highlighted how this conference will be different from others. This cop was billed as “Native Cop” given the venue's proximity to the Amazon and Brazil's efforts to ensure indigenous participation. But that presence was still limited by the nature of UN negotiations, in which member states have a say and indigenous peoples who have not achieved internationally recognized statehood cannot vote on decisions like, when and how to divest from fossil fuels.
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Indigenous activists who did not receive official permission to enter protected areas did not wait for permission. Over the course of several days of the conference they marched on the streets, blocked the doors to the conference, pushed their way and made sure the world knew that “they can’t decide for us without us.”
For Caden Watts, a climate policy and indigenous rights expert from the Ngati Tuharetoa, Ngati Maniapoto and Tūhoe Māori tribes, who watched the conference from Aotearoa, New Zealand, it was in stark contrast to previous conferences he had attended, where Indigenous perspectives were often ignored or only heard when they were amplified by non-Indigenous allies such as Greta. Thunberg. This time, he saw reporters interview demonstrators and indigenous leaders who spoke about land rights and climate damage.
“What you saw this time around was the amplification of Indigenous voices purely because of incredible organizing efforts,” Watts said. “We see this result very rarely, and it has led to measurable change.”
Before the end of the COP, the Brazilian government took steps to demarcate the lands of 27 indigenous peoples across Brazil and promised to recognize 59 million additional hectares over the next five years.
According to Articulation of Brazil's indigenous peoplesorganization representing indigenous peoples in Brazil, this COP had more indigenous participants than in the entire 30-year history of the conference – more than 5,000 indigenous participants, including about 900 with accredited access to the venues where negotiators and pre-approved delegates met.
Indigenous advocates came to the COP wanting nation states to agree to a clear roadmap for a transition away from fossil fuels and commitments to stop deforestation. They had many proposals that they hoped to include in the Global Mutirão, a non-binding international agreement between UN members at COP30 that would protect the rights of indigenous peoples and their territories. This did not happen, but countries agreed to formally recognize the importance of protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, including land rights, in Work program “Just transition”a UN program designed to help countries transition away from fossil fuels.
This is very important to Emil Gualinga, who is a member of the Sarayaku Kichwa Nation and attended COP30 as a member International Indigenous Forum on Climate Changea formal global gathering created to enable indigenous peoples to participate in the COP negotiations. Gualinga said this year Panama helped provide Work program “Just transition” included a reference to the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent to what occurs on their territories. This is becoming increasingly important in light of research that shows mineral deposits are critical to generating energy without fossil fuels production is often located on indigenous lands and waters.
But while he is proud of the achievement, Gualinga was among many who were frustrated by the failure of UN member states to commit to a concrete plan to end dependence on fossil fuels, allowing the atmosphere to continue on its path to warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists have warned would have catastrophic consequences on Earth. The final version of Global Mutirão was softened by representatives oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and growing economies such as China and India.
“None of our proposals were taken into account in the text of the Global Mutiran,” Gualinga said, noting that Mutirao it is a native name. “But even so, none of the proposals were taken into account.”
However, he is not discouraged. “The fight for indigenous peoples is not just at the Constitutional Court,” he added.
International platforms such as COP are important venues for advocating for environmental justice on behalf of indigenous peoples, protecting both the health of the planet and their rights to land and water, but are only one of many tools. This is something Gualinga knows well; his community in the Amazon forest of southern Ecuador has fought for decades against the oil industry's attempts to drill on their lands. He was just a child when the oil industry entered their territory.
The people of Sarayaku responded with organized resistance: women sneaked out in the middle of the night to steal weapons from security forces, and the village stopped fishing, hunting and going to school for six months in order to remain vigilant on its land. The Sarayaku have filed local and international lawsuits alleging that the oil company's presence violates their right to free, prior and informed consent to what happens on their property. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concluded that Ecuador violated their rights allowing the company to enter its territory.
“You don’t know in advance what strategies will work,” Gualinga reflected on local advocacy efforts. “I think it’s a matter of creativity and finding something to focus on.”
Earlier this year, Pacific island states, led in part Indigenous students and lawyers, won a landmark decision from the International Court of Justice, which made clear that national governments have a legal obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change and compensate those affected. Many of those who flew to Belem from the Pacific Ocean hoped for a court decision will apply the necessary pressure to force global action such as a transition away from fossil fuels.
Belindar Rikimani, a Solomon Islander who attended the CoP as one of the founders Pacific Island students fight climate change which initiated the ICJ case was disappointed that the decision was not recognised. “At a time when the science is clear and communities on the front lines are sounding the alarm, the absence of any reference to a fossil fuel phase-out in the text of the decision is a devastating failure of political courage,” she said. “We will continue to take action in courtrooms, negotiating rooms and at the grassroots level until states live up to their responsibilities and create the future our generation deserves.”
Gualinga said he expects international advocacy for indigenous peoples to continue. next summer in Bonn, Germany, where another UN conference will discuss national and international recommendations for the transition away from fossil fuels, as well as First international conference on fossil fuel phase-out in Santa Marta, Colombia next April. “This is an important development for the indigenous movement in the Amazon, given that indigenous organizations have called for the Amazon, and especially indigenous territories, to be declared no-go zones for extractive industries,” he said.
Kayden Watts from Aotearoa New Zealand said he believes the visibility of indigenous resistance at COP30 suggests indigenous messages are starting to resonate with society. He expects the movement for climate justice for Indigenous people to continue to grow despite disappointments with the COP.
“Ever since Indigenous peoples have had to fight for their rights—no matter what form that may take—their advocacy and their determination for self-determination has never stopped,” he said. “And we will never see it stop.”
