Over 5,000 Activists Sailed To Brazil From Around The World To Demand COP30 Deliver True Climate Justice
"Sailing here today means it’s necessary to continue defending our lands and demarcating our lands is defending life."
More than 5,000 Indigenous leaders, activists and forest defenders from around the world have sailed to Belém, Brazil, on a flotilla at the UN’s COP30 climate summit to demand climate justice and protection for the Amazon rainforest.
T fluvial manifesto, organized by the People's Summit movement with more than 1,000 civil society organizations worldwide and part of the Flotilla4Change movement, included more than 200 boats that sailed through the waters of the Guama and Guajara rivers, arriving in Guajara Bay, in Belém, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, signaling the start of the People’s Summit.
The People’s Summit is a conference held parallel to COP30, bringing together activists from around the world advocating for a better future.
The flotilla included Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship and was led by Indigenous, riverine and grassroots movements from across the Amazon and beyond, highlighting their demands for climate justice, Indigenous rights.
The People Summit movement is demanding real climate action instead of false climate solutions, protection of Indigenous lands, an end to fossil fuel and deforestation and asking for polluters to pay.
“People who have been fighting for generations for their rights, their lands, and the forest, and civil society demanding real action from world leaders and negotiators at COP. This must be the COP of action. Action for the climate, action for forests, action for people,” Greenpeace Brazil director, who is joining the mission, said.
The flotilla was both a celebration and a protest against territorial exploitation and corporate influence in climate negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla, an Indigenous flotilla, also sailed over 3,000 kilometers from the Andes through the Amazon basin to Belém, Brazil, to demand climate justice, protection of Indigenous territories and an end to fossil fuel extraction.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, dozens of Indigenous activists broke into the conference center of COP30 to demand climate action and forest protection, carrying signs saying “Our land is not for sale.”
The movements came as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — commonly known as Lula — promised to end illegal deforestation by 2030 and emphasized that Indigenous communities must play a central role in climate policy.
Activists said they plan to hold daily actions throughout the conference, including marches, performances and river demonstrations led by Indigenous leaders.
Flavie Chen
Sofia Hou
Cici Xiao
