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Indigenous Demands Took Center Stage at COP30, but Decisions Were Made Behind Closed Doors

  • By: Natalia Figueredo
Dozens of participants sit on white plastic chairs inside a large pavilion at the Federal University of Pará in Brazil. Around them, colorful flags signal the diversity of movements present: blue flags represent fisherfolk and shellfish gatherers, red flags identify Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), and, to the right, banners mark the presence of Babaçu coconut breakers from Maranhão. Together, the raised flags reflect the broad range of social movements gathered in the space. Photo credit: Natalia Figueredo, November 2025.
Civil society activists and representatives of social movements gather in a plenary session at the People’s Summit during COP30, hosted at the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil. Photo credit: Natalia Figueredo, November 2025.

In November 2025, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened its 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. Expectations were especially high. The summit marked a decade since the adoption of the Paris Agreement and was the first UN climate conference ever held in the Amazon, a region that has come to embody both the urgency of the climate crisis and the human and ecological costs of inaction, particularly for Indigenous communities who have held sovereignty over these lands for generations. Against this backdrop, COP30 was widely seen as a moment for delivery: a test of whether governments could move beyond pledges and reaffirm, rather than retreat from, the commitments already on the table.

Hosting the conference in the Amazon was widely interpreted by environmental organizations, Indigenous movements, and civil society as more than a logistical choice. It raised expectations that climate negotiations could move beyond abstract targets and technical language, reconnecting global commitments to concrete issues such as forest protection, environmental racism, Indigenous rights, and the responsibility of historically high-emitting countries to finance a just transition away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy systems.

According to Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous participation at COP30 in Belém brought together representatives from 385 Indigenous communities worldwide—including 312 from Brazil and 73 from 42 other countries—marking an unprecedented level of global Indigenous representation at a climate summit. From across Latin America, Indigenous participation included activists and leaders from peoples such as the Zapotec (Mexico), Maya (Guatemala), Guna (Panama), Kichwa and Achuar (Ecuador and Peru), and Tikuna (Colombia, Peru, and Brazil), alongside delegates from other Amazonian nations. One of the most emblematic journeys was the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla, in which around 60 Indigenous representatives traveled some 3,000 kilometers by river from Coca, Ecuador, through the Amazon basin to Belém, carrying collective demands for climate justice and the recognition of Indigenous territorial rights.

Two women stand side by side at a public demonstration, holding a white banner with green lettering that reads, “Stop criminalizing Indigenous peoples in climate actions.” One woman wears a pink skirt and a matching top, while the other wears a denim skirt and a yellow blouse. They face forward with a firm, determined stance amid the COP30 protests in Belém, Brazil.
Women protesters hold a banner denouncing the criminalization of Indigenous peoples during a demonstration at COP30 in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Photo credit: Natalia Figueredo, November 2025.

The conference brought together roughly 5,000 Indigenous participants, the largest Indigenous presence ever recorded at a UN climate summit. Of these, about 900 were accredited to access the Blue Zone, the restricted area where government delegations negotiate and make formal decisions. The majority participated through the Green Zone, the public area of the conference dedicated to side events, assemblies, and civil society activities. It was there that Indigenous leaders gathered in significant numbers to organize, coordinate positions, and debate shared priorities across regions. The separation revealed a central contradiction of the summit. Indigenous peoples were visible and politically active, but largely absent from the spaces where binding climate decisions were negotiated.

During the two weeks of the conference, Indigenous Peoples called for the legal protection of their territories, framing land security as essential to confronting the accelerating impacts of climate change and environmental destruction. They demanded effective participation in climate negotiations and called for an end to extractive activities such as mining, oil, and logging on Indigenous lands, which continue to drive deforestation, pollution, and violence. Indigenous leaders also emphasized the recognition of ancestral knowledge as a basis for climate action, pointing to land management practices that have sustained forests, rivers, and biodiversity over generations. Additional demands included direct access to climate finance and the enforcement of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, a legal safeguard requiring Indigenous approval before projects affecting their territories are authorized.

The conference closed with the delivery of a joint declaration to COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago and other authorities, setting out 15 points for consideration in the formal negotiations. 

That visibility, however, ran alongside negotiations still dominated by intergovernmental bargaining over emissions targets, carbon markets, and disputed financing mechanisms. Despite sustained efforts to engage officials through declarations and public advocacy, proposals developed by civil society rarely reached the spaces where binding decisions were taken. Unfortunately, there were no mechanisms to ensure that it translated into concrete decisions within the negotiations.

A woman holds a white protest sign with bold black and green lettering that reads, “They stole our land. Now they want to steal our future.” Beside her, another demonstrator wears a mask depicting Brazilian environmental activist and rubber tapper Chico Mendes, linking the protest to Brazil’s long history of land and environmental struggles.
A protester displays a sign reading “They stole our land. Now they want to steal our future” during the People’s Climate March at COP30 in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Photo credit: Natalia Figueredo, November 2025.

Against this backdrop, Indigenous Peoples and civil society took their demands to the streets of Belém, using public demonstrations to assert rights, defend territories, and press for climate justice. On November 11, hundreds of Indigenous land defenders from the Amazon, including leaders from the Tapajós River region in Pará, confronted security at the main entrance of the COP venue, rejecting climate solutions advanced without their participation. Days later, an estimated 70,000 people joined the Global Climate March marking the return of visible mass protest. The mobilization continued on November 17 with the Global Indigenous Climate March, marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day, reinforcing calls for climate responses grounded in territorial realities and community-led solutions.

After two weeks, the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference ended without delivering on its central expectation of a long-awaited roadmap to reduce global dependence on fossil fuels. For Indigenous organizations and civil society groups, the measures included in the so-called Belém Package, framed around technical support, fell short of core demands for climate finance and enforceable protections for Indigenous territories and rights. 

But outside the UN process, some governments signaled alternative pathways. Colombia announced plans to host, together with the Netherlands, an international conference focused on moving beyond fossil fuels, aimed at advancing a rapid, just, and fully financed transition. 

With Turkey and Australia set to jointly preside over COP30, pressure is mounting for a process that moves beyond procedural consensus and delivers concrete results. If COP30 left a defining legacy, it was the historic participation of Indigenous Peoples and the scale of civil society mobilization, which brought clearly articulated demands and proposals to Belém. A central challenge going forward will be ensuring the meaningful participation of these actors in coming conferences. The question for future negotiations is no longer whether Indigenous leadership matters, but whether governments are willing to transfer power and align climate governance with the realities unfolding in the territories most exposed to the crisis.

 

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About the Author

Natalia Figueredo is a Latino-Amazonian architect, urbanist, and researcher from Brazil based in Barcelona. She is currently a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Barcelona, where she researches urban development in Amazonian territories. She is also a member of the Observatory of Urban Conflict Anthropology (OACU) and collaborates with the European project Sonic Street Technologies, researching sound technologies in urban Amazonia. Her work engages research and communication through artistic practice, sound experimentation, writing, and lecturing, operating at the intersection of urbanism, cultural studies, and urban anthropology. Drawing from her Amazonian roots and global dialogues, her research focuses on critical ecologies, decolonial thought, and feminisms, challenging dominant ideas of territory, knowledge, and power.