by Silvia Zaccaria
Mutirao Global Decisions is the title of the final document of the 30th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change. But in reality no concrete decision has been taken yet and there is no global consensus; just one more confirmation of what was highlighted fragmentation international community regarding climate change.
Therefore, we left Belem with a bitter taste in our mouths because of a broken promise there, in the heart of the Amazon, in what should be the COP of Truth.
Participation of 900 indigenous peoples, although only as observers (“overflow party”, i.e. literally “outside the delegation”) – or “kuntari katu” (literally “those who speak well”), as they chose to define themselves by once again using terms from the “common” Amazonian language – for the official program of the event, were undoubtedly represented an event that had never happened before in Cop history.
And if on several occasions the “blue zone” that hosts negotiations becomes an arena for their protests, this is because they continue to be excluded from decisions that concern them. Major infrastructure and energy projects recently promoted by Lula’s government are actually underway clear contrast with a declaration that recognizes the importance of delimiting and protecting traditional territories and territories as a tool to mitigate and combat climate change and the rights of people and communities within them.
In August 2025, the Brazilian president signed decree 12,600/2025 which turned three Amazon rivers – the Tapajos, Tocantins and Madeira – into commodities in the hands of the people. large private companies. Also in the Tapajos area, in addition to the waterway with the same name, a renamed railway line is also planned ferrograobecause it will transport agricultural products (and minerals) from Mato Grosso to the port of Para. Finally, last October, Petrobras has received permission from Ibama to drilling oil exploration well 150 km from the mouth of the Amazon River.
The recognition of 14 new customary lands and the opening of dialogue regarding the Tapajos project represent only one thing a little consolation. There are an estimated 70 more lots waiting to be demarcated, and the process is slow and expensive. Meanwhile, during the Police period, another leader, one of the members of the Kaiowa Guarani community who was tortured, he was killed during retomada (re-occupation) of ancestral territory. Therefore, indigenous peoples left outside the COP (around 6,000 people) joined 70,000 people from social movements, forest communities, field communities, suburban communities, to convey their voices to society. “People’s Summit” and on city streets at Climate March.
People Kayapo, hailing from the state of Para, he was the biggest presence at Cop. All the spotlight was on the big man Cacique Raoni which for 93 years embodies the history of Brazil’s indigenous movement. But he is also on the sidelines of negotiations. Meanwhile, in the “green zone,” dozens of tribal women sit on the ground occupying corridors with beaded bracelets, necklaces and earrings that repeat images inspired by their cosmology. We asked the organizers why they were not given enough space to display handmade objects that are true works of art. But they arrogantly answered: “What art?” Others intend to get some real making tribal tattoos on participants’ whitish skin. Because indigenous aesthetics are in fashion right now.
Although the reoccupation of physical space experienced difficulties, indigenous peoples reaped the benefits the more space on a symbolic level and gradually permeates society with its own language, signs, values and vision of the future rooted in ancestors. A contribution valuableperhaps more than many other summits, to a concerted effort to try to delay the end of the world.
