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Indigenous people flooded the streets, rowed on waterways and protested in the middle of the venue so their voices could be heard. united nations Climate talks that were supposed to give them a voice like never before at the annual conference.
As the COP30 talks concluded Saturday in Belém, Brazil, indigenous peoples reflected on what the conference meant to them and whether they were heard.
Brazilian leaders had high expectations from this summit AmazonWill empower the people who live on the land and protect the biodiversity of the world’s largest rainforest, which helps prevent climate change because its trees absorb carbon pollution that warms the planet.
Many natives who participated in the negotiations felt strengthened by the solidarity with tribes from other countries and some appreciated the small victory in the end result. But for many, the conversation failed to deliver on representation, ambition and true action on climate issues affecting indigenous peoples.
“This was a COP where we were visible but not empowered,” said Thalia Yarina Cachimuel, a Kichwa-Otavalo member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, a group of indigenous peoples from around the world.
Some languages win but nothing over fossil fuels
The first paragraph of the main political text acknowledges “the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their land rights and traditional knowledge”.
Tali Terena, an indigenous woman from Brazil’s Terena nation, said she was pleased because the text clearly mentioned those rights for the first time.
But Mindahi Bastida, an Otomi-Toltec member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, said countries should push for agreements to phase out fuels like oil, gas and coal and to view nature not as a tradable commodity, but as sacred.
Many countries pushed for a road map to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which releases greenhouse gases that warm the planet. Saturday’s final decision made no mention of fossil fuels, disappointing many countries.
Brazil also launched a financial mechanism to which countries could donate, intended to help encourage countries that had a lot of forest to keep those ecosystems intact.
Although the initiative received monetary pledges from some countries, the project and the idea of creating a market for carbon are wrong solutions that “don’t stop pollution, they just move it around,” said Akimel O’Otham and Jacob Johns, Wisdom Keeper of the Hopi Nations.
“They give corporations a license to keep drilling, to keep burning, to keep destroying, as long as they can point to offsets written on paper. It’s the same colonial logic that’s been framed as climate policy,” Johns said.
Concern over tokenism
From the beginning of the conference, some Indigenous attendees were concerned that visibility did not equate to real power. In the end, that feeling persisted.
“What we have seen at this COP is a focus on symbolic presence rather than enabling the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples,” Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, wrote in a message after the conference concluded.
Edson Crenak, Brazil manager of the indigenous rights group Cultural Survival and a member of the Crenak people, did not think negotiators did not make enough efforts to visit the forests or understand the communities living there. He also did not believe that providing 900 natives access to the main venue was sufficient.
Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajara, who is herself indigenous, framed the conference differently.
“It is undisputed that this is the biggest and best COP in terms of indigenous participation and leadership,” he said.
Protests show the power of indigenous solidarity
While some Indigenous attendees felt rejected by the delegates’ decisions, many said they felt empowered by participating in demonstrations outside the venue.
When the summit began on November 10, Amazonian indigenous leader Paulo Andres Paz de Lima thought his tribe and others would not have access to COP30. During the first week, he and a group of protesters broke the barrier and entered the venue. Authorities immediately intervened and stopped their progress.
De Lima said the act helped indigenous peoples raise their voices.
“After breaking the barrier, we were able to enter the COP, go to the Blue Zones and express our needs,” he said, referring to the official negotiation zone. “The closer we got (to the talks), the more visibility we got.”
The protest at this COP was not just meant to attract the attention of non-indigenous people, but was also intended as a way for indigenous people to connect with each other.
On the last night before the agreement was reached, a small group with banners walked inside the venue to protest recent incidents of violence and environmental destruction ranging from the murder of a Guarani youth in their own territory to the proposed Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project. Canada,
“We have to come together to show up, you know? Because they need to hear us,” said Leandro Karai of the Guarani people. South America Said about solidarity among indigenous groups. “When we are with others, we are stronger.”
They sang to the slow beat of drums, lined up their weapons and marched out of the long hall of the COP site, breaking the silence in the corridors as negotiators remained deadlocked inside.
Then they emerged, voices rising, beneath the yellow sky.
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