background
The city of Belem spent a lot of money before the climate conference and, among other things, renovated the port and market. How did society experience COP30?
Gabriela Leal has just returned from a long trip to her hometown of Belém, and she is already sitting in one of the many food stalls in the historic Ver-o-Peso market with its blue-painted towers on the river bank, happily dipping a piece of fried fish into the purple soup: “I just came from a trip to the south of Brazil: “I can’t wait, I finally want to eat something delicious. So here we are, without food, we feel like orphans in the world. It’s acai.”
Superfood from Amazon
Acai is a purple berry that grows on palm trees in the Amazon estuary. They contain a lot of iron and are healthy, the chef says. Frozen and sweetened, it is also celebrated internationally as a superfood. Here in Belem, cassava flour is added to it, along with fish or crayfish.
Acai berries at Ver-o-Peso market. Superfoods also grow in Belem.
In the evening you eat tacaca, a soup with guava, a concoction that lulls the tongue to sleep. At the festival there is manicoba made from cassava leaves, which must be cooked for days because otherwise it will be poisonous. Trader Mario Pereira keeps all kinds of leafy plants, tubers and roots.
Belem is a melting pot: there are indigenous, African and European influences. That’s why our food is some of the best in the world: it all comes straight from the Amazon rainforest, which shapes our food, our beliefs, and our culture. Belém is a city full of all the senses, leaving everyone enchanted.
Sensory or chaotic magic Overstimulation
Belém’s Ver-o-Peso market is considered the heart of the city – it chronicles the heyday of the rubber boom in the Amazon at the beginning of the 20th century, when Belém flourished. The once majestic building now has a more sinister charm, and the market is quickly being renovated for the climate conference.
Thousands of people work here, traders, daily laborers, market women, even those who don’t have a job get a plate of food. Boats and barges dock in the morning, bringing large river fish, fruit and tourists from the surrounding rainforest communities.
Ver-o-Peso is like a mother who takes care of everything, even matters of lovesickness or potency, says Fabiana with a wink. She sells all kinds of potions and oils with names like “envy buster,” “money attractor,” or “dangerous femininity.” Does he also have something to fight climate change? “To save the climate, we have to do something ourselves, everyone has to do their part. Unfortunately, I don’t have a panacea for that. For that we need self-criticism and courage, otherwise we won’t make progress and everyone will end up in the same hole.”
Investments for COP30
For the climate conference, this city of 1.4 million people at the mouth of the Amazon took months to build, renovate and modernize – the harbor docks shine with new light, there are freshly painted bike paths and a river promenade. Governor Para compared the boost the climate summit gave the city to the Belle Époque during the rubber boom. Historian Marcio Couto can only scratch his head. We walk through the outskirts of the city, there is not a single tree to provide shade, instead there are slum houses, empty workshops and a lot of poverty.
“There is a myth about the Belle Epoque, which is considered a heavenly era, but at that time indigenous people were enslaved and this time created a lot of social inequality,” he reported. “And that’s what’s happening right now: exploitation of the rainforest through agriculture, mining and oil production is destroying indigenous territories and pushing people into impoverished areas of the cities.”
There is currently major investment in several areas of the city’s infrastructure – such as roads and local transport. “But this also forces people to leave their homes again. The state spruces up tourist areas, but does not support poor suburbs, which, like elsewhere, continue to expand.”
Ver-o-Peso is also a meeting point.
A city full of contradictions
Priscilla Cobra sings about this in her lyrics, about the contradictions of a city surrounded by rich nature but full of poverty. Afro-indigenous activists lead the Carimbó group. Carimbó is traditional regional music that expresses the cultural roots of the Amazon city.
Carimbó is a culture of collective resistance. Through music, traditional knowledge is passed down from generation to generation; we also make the instruments ourselves. What defines us, our mentality, our spirituality, our customs and our nature, from which we live and what gives us life; So basically it’s always about environmental issues.
Then the orchestra begins: there are real rattles, African wooden drums, guitars and banjos. Priscilla wore a wide skirt and danced in circles around the room. This is also Belem, a city full of contradictions.
