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In an unprecedented articulation, the Brazilian indigenous movement, with the support of the federal government, enabled the presence of almost 400 leaders in the official negotiation spaces of the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30), in Belém, and established a village in the capital of Pará with the presence of 3 thousand indigenous people, including traditional peoples from other regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia. 
There are still 2 thousand indigenous people spread across the city throughout this period. The result, in the assessment of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), is the largest presence of indigenous peoples among all climate conferences ever held.
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“Many people have heard of the Amazon, have heard of the largest tropical forest in the world, but they don’t know that protecting this forest costs lives and that this Amazon is also being raped, violated, destroyed through the predatory use of land and nature. And it is this message that we bring to Belém do Pará, for COP30, that we bring to the world: there will be no solution without the indigenous presence”, stated the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, during the opening of AldeiaCOP, on Tuesday night (11).
Open to the public until November 21st, the village was set up at Colégio Aplicação, at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), in the Terra Firme neighborhood, east of the capital. The site, which has undergone a series of improvements and adaptations, has accommodation, a stage for presentations, a bioeconomy fair, a space in geodesic format for debates and a spiritual house for the practice of healing rituals and indigenous ancestral medicine.
Ancestral House at AldeiaCOP in Belém – Photo Bruno Peres/Agência Brasil
“We wanted a space that would more or less embody the dynamics of a village in our territories, a wooded space, pleasant for welcoming, but also a space for accommodation, food, sleeping and holding debates and other activities”, stated Kléber Karipuna, executive coordinator of Apib and the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), in an interview with Brazil Agency.
The process of indigenous social mobilization for COP30 is part of the so-called Peoples Circle, an initiative of the Brazilian presidency of the conference, preceded by training work that involved 2,000 indigenous people from 361 Brazilian ethnicities. Of this total, around 400 were accredited to participate directly in the blue zone, the negotiation area of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Among the results expected by indigenous peoples in the largest participation in the history of the COPs are the recognition of forest protection as a fundamental action to mitigate the climate crisis, the inclusion of the demarcation of territories as climate goals and the implementation of direct financing channels, which enable the transfer of resources directly to them.
“We come with the demand to extract a legacy from this COP, a legacy of commitment from countries, from leaders with the demarcation and protection of indigenous territories. Not only from indigenous territories, but from quilombolas, traditional communities, as an effective policy to face the climate emergency that the world is experiencing today. This is the main legacy [que queremos]”, destacou Kleber Karipuna.
“We want to show the world a sustainable way of relating to nature, with Mother Earth and protecting our entire planet”, said minister Sônia Guajajara.
Indigenous programming at COP30
The indigenous presence at COP30 also occurs in parallel programs, such as , a space organized by the Indigenous media with a series of cultural activities and conversation circles.
Indigenous people participate in the inauguration of AldeiaCOP in Belém – Photo Bruno Peres/Agência Brasil
Another initiative is , which takes place between November 13th and 19th, also in Belém, parallel to COP30, at the Image and Sound Museum. The program is part of the 10th Amazon Film Festival and aims to transform the space into a territory for listening, dialogue and celebration of traditional knowledge. Held by the National Museum of Indigenous Peoples (MNPI) in partnership with Mekaron Filmes, the Instituto Cultural Amazônia Brasil and the Museu da Pessoa, the festival proposes to see cinema as an extension of the territory — a place to “village the future”, where art and words connect to climate justice
