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Aare arriving at Cop30 climate conference In the Amazon’s gateway city of Belém, each of the 50,000 delegates is given a reusable metal water bottle printed with the cartoon. Flame-haired, spear-wielding figure known as “Kurupira”.
Curupira is a spiritual figure of Amazonian folklore, considered the guardian of the rainforest and its animal inhabitants. according to brazilian cop presidencyThe mascot reflects a commitment to cutting emissions and making forest protection a key ambition.
When asked what he thinks about such symbolism, Dario Copenawa Yanomami, an indigenous leader from a region deep in the Amazon, close to the border with Venezuela, only smiles. He says, “It’s just hype. And we have to go beyond the hype.”
The community of Darío suffers from threats including illegal logging and land clearance, but the most serious problem is illegal mining invasions by potential gold miners. “They cut down trees, they flood the river with mercury and they give alcohol and guns to other members of the community to try to turn us against each other,” he said. Right-wing populist President Bolsonaro, Those in power between 2019 and 2023 have still not seen significant improvements under the current progressive President Lula.
While deforestation has been declining since Lula was elected, with a 30.6 percent decline between the period August 2023 to July 2024, Lula has sparked significant controversy. Emphasis on oil exploration in the Amazon region In the weeks leading up to Cop30.
a big brazilian Emphasis on carbon offsetting projects At Cop30, it is expected that more “credits” will be sold based on carbon absorbed by trees, has also been unpopular among indigenous peoples. “How can you put a price on something that nature gives us for free… air, water, sun and trees are not things that should be sold for profit,” says Tali Terrena, an indigenous activist from southern Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland region.
On Friday, the entrance to COP30 was blocked for about 90 minutes by about 100 members of the Munduruku people, with leaders sharing a series of demands, including canceling the grain railway project, ending commercial development of rivers and canceling carbon market projects.
Talley and Dario both express concerns about Brazil’s major forest conservation project Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)The aim of which is to encourage forest nations like Brazil to stop deforestation, essentially setting up a giant investment fund to give countries annual payments to aid their forest conservation efforts. “It doesn’t really feel like it’s for indigenous people,” says Dario, “but it seems more like a plan to acquire the forest for white people” – despite the fact that about 20 percent of the funds have been promised to indigenous people.
“Although TFFF acknowledges the role of traditional people, it remains part of the financialization of nature – a model that fails to stop deforestation or protect communities, and instead prioritizes profit,” says Eduardo Raguse, an activist with Amigas da Terra Brasil.
A forest community in the shadow of Belém
Cop30’s location in Belém means you don’t have to go far to find evidence of rainforest destruction.
A few minutes’ boat ride from town is the home of Seu Ladi, an 83-year-old forester of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian descent, who we met Independent Just before the start of the Cop30 climate talks.
Ladi has spent his entire life on the same small piece of land in the jungle, growing native plants such as acai and cacao, as well as harvesting other herbs, flowers, resins and other products growing in the jungle, knowledge of which he eagerly displays during walks in the jungle., They have a way of life that has remained largely the same across generations – which cannot be said for the city of Belém and its residents.
“When I was young, Belém was all jungle, and the port was a beach,” he says. “We used to cycle in the rain at 2 am to sell herbs in the market,” he says. These days, he says, large swathes of forest in the region have been cut down – a phenomenon that, along with the growing climate crisis, has changed previously reliable weather patterns.
“Nowadays it is sometimes too hot and not enough rain,” explains Laddi. “At other times, it rains so much, and the storms get so fierce that I worry the city will be swept away.” Weather conditions mean that some products become difficult to find in the forest, including Brazil nuts, which Laddy searches in vain for. Independent,
Teams of loggers frequent the area, looking for expensive hardwoods that fetch high prices on the black market. “Recently they came and I became so angry that I wanted to take my hunting gun and shoot them immediately,” he says. “I pray to God to stop them, and I believe God will make sure these people pay one day.”
As far as Cop30 is concerned, Ladi says the priority should not be about schemes to bring money into rainforests, but about promoting the rights of the people who live there.
‘The one thing we don’t need here in the jungle is money… We live in the Amazon, we have all the wealth we could possibly need,’ he says. We need protection, and the forest must be saved from further destruction.’
Far from Belém, among Brazil’s more than 100 uncontacted tribes, the question of security becomes a matter of life or death.
According to Sarah Schenker of the London-based NGO Survival International, such groups include the Awa people, who live just 200 miles from Belém in Pará state, who are at great risk as loggers, ranchers and settlers invade their territory. There are only about 350 Awa people left on earth.
Elsewhere, in the neighboring state of Mato Grosso, lies the indigenous territory of the Kawahiva, an uncontacted tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers who are similarly under threat from land grabbers, loggers and cattle herders. Furthermore, due to intense lobbying by outside interests, the area has yet to undergo the process of “demarcation”, which is when the government guarantees the tribe legal rights to their land.
“Earlier this year, the government had promised that demarcation would be done by the end of this year, but that is clearly not going to happen as we are already in November,” Shenkar explains. The ongoing work to pave a road located just 3 km away from Kawahiva’s territory is further increasing the threats to the tribe.
FUNAI, the Brazilian agency for indigenous rights, was contacted Independent About these claims.
It is believed that nearly half of the 196 uncontacted indigenous groups living in 10 countries around the world are currently facing extinction, according to a five year study Due to threats including logging, mining, agribusiness, criminal gangs and the spread of diseases, Survival International released the report ahead of Cop30.
Protecting indigenous communities is not only about human rights, but also about protecting the forest. An estimated 36 percent of the world’s remaining forests are on indigenous people’s lands – and studies show that when indigenous land rights are legally recognized in Brazil, deforestation within the land’s boundaries is typically reduced by 66 percent compared to neighboring non-indigenous lands.
Back to Cop30, when asked Independent If he is concerned for the future of his people given the continued threats they face from miners, Dario Copenawa Yanomami says clearly: The threat to indigenous peoples is a threat to all of us, not just the Yanomami people. After all, he continues, indigenous peoples are the most successful custodians of the rainforest environment that plays such an important role in oxygenating the atmosphere and regulating rainfall patterns. Secure our food systems,
He says, “Westerners need to stop thinking that the Amazon is just an empty jungle. We, the native people, are there and protecting the jungle.”
“Our advocacy is not just about protecting forest natives, but about protecting everyone. If there is no future for indigenous peoples, there is no future for anyone.”
This article was produced as part of The Independent Rethinking global aid Project