Indigenous leaders want the same influence as world leaders in UN climate negotiations
About 8,000 indigenous people from the Amazon rainforest and the Pacific converged in the Brazilian capital on Monday, demanding that they be politicians when the country holds this year’s UN climate conference.
About 200 indigenous communities from Latin America and the Pacific, including Aboriginal Australians, attended the annual gathering of indigenous peoples in Brasilia.
They wore brightly colored traditional dresses and body paint, insisting that indigenous leaders had the same “equal voice and power” as world leaders at the UN COP30 conference in the Amazon city of Bellem in November.
They also demand direct use of environmental protection and projects to help indigenous communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Despite separating the oceans, both the Amazon and Oceania’s indigenous peoples live on the frontlines of global warming, with rising sea levels threatening to submerge low-lying Pacific islands like Fiji.
Alisi Rabukawaqa, 37, the leader of the Fijian tribe, told AFP in Brasilia.
Meanwhile, in South America, last year’s record drought set the conditions for a particularly severe season of wildfires.
According to the Mapbiomas monitoring platform, nearly 18 million hectares of Amazon rainforest have been eliminated in Brazil alone.
“It’s important for me to invite the indigenous chiefs to the COP30 … because the leaders living in the village are people who know the huge difficulties brought by climate problems,” said Sinesio Trovao, head of the indigenous betania Mecurane community in Brazil.
– ‘We are the answer’ –
Brazil announced the establishment of an indigenous leadership circle at COP30 to ensure hearings to indigenous peoples.
But indigenous communities want to ensure that their participation is more than just a display.
“We want to see how to do this in a practical way,” Rabukawaqa said.
A week-long rally in Brasilia was called with the slogan of “We are the answer”, including a parade in the government building.
On Tuesday, Congress will hold a special session on indigenous rights.
By holding COP30 on the Brazilian Amazon, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aims to highlight the existence threat to the world’s largest rainforest.
During his visit to Amazon last week, he praised the “important role” of Indigenous communities in opposing climate change.
While pledging to end illegal Amazon deforestation, the left-wing president has come under fire from climate activists for pushing for a major offshore oil exploration project near the estuary of the Amazon.
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