November 2025 -

Yaku Mama Flotilla arrives in Belém do Pará for COP30

WE ARRIVE AT COP30 WITH A MESSAGE FROM THE HEART OF THE WORLD

WE ARRIVE AT COP30 WITH A MESSAGE FROM THE HEART OF THE WORLD BELÉM DO PARÁ, BRASIL —November 9, 2025. We are the mountain, the rivers, the living jungle. We are the seeds, the trees, the refuge. We are the territory of all lives. We are the Amazon, we are resistance. We are more than 60 leaders and women leaders of Indigenous Peoples from Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, and Indonesia. For one month, we have navigated 3,000 kilometers along the Napo and Amazon rivers—the same waters that centuries ago were a route of conquest—now transforming them into a path of resistance, dignity, and climate justice. We do not come to COP30 to ask for permission. We come to demand that climate policies be built from the territories, with justice for those of us who protect life. OUR JOURNEY During this journey through Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, the river spoke to us. We saw the blood of the earth in the water: rivers poisoned by illegal mining, oil spills that are never cleaned up, and waste that states have ignored for decades. The water—the primary source of life—is being turned into a threat for those who have protected it for millennia. We witnessed the machine of extermination operating without pause: mining, oil companies, logging, and hydroelectric dams, which continue the 500+ years of ecocide and genocide to fuel the consumption of the Global North, the main responsible party for this climate crisis. We saw defenders forced into exile for protecting life. We saw Indigenous youth blocked: without work or spaces for decision-making, forced to migrate. And we saw the most brutal hypocrisy: Brazil, the host of this COP30, is pushing for oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River—home to Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact. In Ecuador, the government is calling for a constituent assembly to repeal the rights of nature. While the world talks about climate action, it criminalizes and murders those who practice it. COP30 cannot continue deciding about us, without us. COP30 cannot continue to decide about us, without us. THE LIVING SOLUTIONS This journey showed us that viable and replicable solutions already exist—they are alive. At every stop, we exchanged monitoring methods, defense strategies, territorial governance systems, and spirituality. We heard different languages naming the same struggles, distinct worldviews defending the same principle: life is sacred and non-negotiable. We learned from peoples who have stopped extractivist projects through collective governance, who have confronted corporations and states, and won. This flotilla is living evidence: peoples from diverse Ancestral Nations flowing as a single river. We bring communication as a tool for territorial defense, creating our own narrative: territorial authorities with their own voice and legitimate governance systems. We bring the clarity that we are the answer. ot as ‘beneficiaries’ of programs designed in distant offices, but as authorities with the right to self-determination. The results speak for themselves: where Indigenous territory is recognized and respected, the jungle stands tall, the water is clean, and biodiversity thrives. WHAT WE DEMAND AT COP30 Without the Amazon, there is no future for humanity. We arrive in Belém with the following demands and proposals, which are common sense in the face of the environmental, economic, political, and spiritual crisis that the entire world is experiencing. 1. AMAZON FREE OF OIL AND MINING We demand the immediate prohibition of fossil fuel exploration and extraction in the Amazon and in all Indigenous territories worldwide. Only an Amazon free of extraction can guarantee the protection of defenders, preserve biodiversity, and ensure global climate resilience. The Amazon is not a resource to be exploited: it is a living being that requires immediate protection. 2. RECOGNITION OF TERRITORIES AS LIVING BEINGS WITH RIGHTS We demand that States legally recognize the Amazon, rivers, and all territories as living entities with their own rights, not as exploitable resources. This recognition must be translated into effective and binding legal protection. 3. INDIGENOUS TERRITORIAL SOVEREIGNTY ABOVE EXTRACTIVE LAWS We demand the recognition of Indigenous authority as legitimate and binding, superseding concessions and state laws that authorize extractivism. The self-determination of peoples cannot be subordinated to corporate or governmental interests. We demand the recognition and guarantee of full territorial rights. 4. REAL FREE, PRIOR, AND INFORMED CONSENT We demand that the energy transition be truly just, respecting Free, Prior, and Informed Consent without simulations or merely decorative consultations. We demand binding—not symbolic—participation in all negotiation spaces that affect our territories. 5. END TO FORCED EXILE AND EFFECTIVE PROTECTION FOR DEFENDERS We demand justice and concrete security guarantees, and an end to impunity regarding threats, assassinations, and criminalization. We demand an end to forced exile that uproots territorial defenders from their communities. States must ensure that those of us who defend the earth can remain peacefully in our communities. 6. BINDING INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE We demand what is rightfully ours: that our ancestral knowledge and practices—applied science spanning thousands of years—be recognized and integrated into climate policies as replicable and globally acknowledged solutions, not as ‘folklore’ or ‘customs. 7. DIRECT FINANCING TO THOSE WHO PROTECT LIFE We demand agile climate funds, without intermediaries who profit from our conservation work, and with simplified access for Indigenous youth. The financing must flow directly to our territorial governance systems and to the new generations of defenders. 8. COMPENSATION FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION AND CLEAN WATER We demand direct compensation so that Amazonian communities can strengthen their adaptation capabilities to a crisis they did not cause. Our territories are facing droughts, floods, and rivers poisoned by mining and oil. Compensation must include water decontamination, waste management, and investment in adaptation systems based on ancestral knowledge. These demands are non-negotiable because we are not negotiating our existence THE ANSWER IS US This flotilla does not end in Belém. It remains organized and ready to fight. We commit to remaining organized after COP30: to sustain communication and coordination among the participating organizations, and to collectively follow up on these demands

Destacado, Flotilla, News

Amazon Flotilla: Indigenous Peoples Must be at the Center of COP30 Climate Negotiations

Amazon Flotilla: Indigenous Peoples Must be at the Center of COP30 Climate Negotiations An extraordinary journey along the Amazon River just took place. The Yaku Mama Flotilla traveled over 1,800 miles from the Andes in Ecuador to Belém, Brazil, the host city of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). This is the first time in history that the COP will take place in the Amazon. Onboard the flotilla were Indigenous leaders, youth, women, and allies, traveling with a shared message: Indigenous peoples must be at the center of climate solutions. Their demands, which include halting fossil fuel extraction in the rainforest, securing direct access to climate finance, and ensuring the protection of their territories and rights, must be heard and acted upon. “The flotilla is a space to share experiences and reflect on issues that are discussed at COPs, but that have historically been addressed without the participation of Indigenous people.“– Alexis Grefa, a Kichwa youth representative from Santa Clara in Ecuador and a member of the flotilla’s organizing team, in an interview with El País Planning for the flotilla began soon after it was announced that COP30 would be hosted in Belém. Indigenous organizations across the Amazon Basin began planting and watering the seeds for a collective journey that would bring visibility to both their struggles and solutions to protect the rainforest. Rather than flying to the summit, they chose to travel by the rivers that connect their territories. And on October 13, the journey began. More than 50 participants from Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia, and Scotland departed from El Coca, Ecuador. Their boats display the image of Yaku Mama, meaning “Mother Water” in Quechua, a sacred river serpent that symbolizes protection and strength. The route the flotilla took retraced the path taken by Spanish colonizer Francisco de Orellana in 1541. While his expedition marked the beginning of colonization in the region, the flotilla became a journey of Indigenous solidarity and resistance against the continued destruction of the Amazon, the ancestral homes of Indigenous peoples. Before departing down river, the group climbed the Cayambe glacier high in the Ecuadorian Andes to emphasize the ecological connection between highlands and rainforest. In the city of El Coca, they held a protest by covering a statue of Francisco de Orellana as a rejection of the legacy of extractivism and violence he represents. There, they also held a symbolic funeral for fossil fuels in the streets where youth leaders carried a black cardboard coffin labeled “R.I.P. Petróleo.” “We are returning oil to where it belongs, the earth,” said Lucía Ixchiu, a K’iche’ woman from Guatemala, as she lit candles to honor environmental defenders who lost their lives in defense of their lands. Finally, as the flotilla continued toward Ecuador’s border with Peru, they stopped at Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, an emblematic site of resistance to oil drilling. A Platform for Demands Rooted in Territory Along the way, the flotilla stopped in Indigenous and local communities to share knowledge and amplify urgent demands. These include: These demands from the flotilla participants stem from their lived experience in territories affected by oil spills, illegal mining, deforestation, and harmful infrastructure projects that are relentless. Solidarity Across Borders ainforest Foundation US (RFUS) was proud to support the Yaku Mama Flotilla during its passage through Peru along with our Indigenous partner, the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO). This collaboration brought participants to communities where they visited community-led sustainable enterprises and learned how community members are using monitoring technology to strengthen territorial defense. In Peru’s northeastern Amazonian city of Iquitos, the flotilla joined the Floating Amazon Film Festival, where cinema brought to life stories of Indigenous resistance and self-determination. In a Tikuna community in Peru, community members welcomed the participants with dances and songs celebrating life. There, well-known Peruvian Amazonian singer Rossy War joined her voice with those of the Amazonian peoples, reminding everyone that music, too, can heal rivers. The flotilla then continued through the tri-border region of Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, where interconnected territories form the world’s largest contiguous expanse of lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. These lands are also biodiversity strongholds. In a Tikuna community on the Brazilian side, participants learned about traditional ecological knowledge passed down through generations. Practices in natural medicine, fishing, and peaceful, sustained coexistence with the forest offered living models of a possible future. In Leticia, Colombia, flotilla members met with Indigenous leaders engaged in public policy advocacy. The conversations highlighted the importance of regional coordination amongst Indigenous peoples and the need to ensure that Indigenous voices shape national and international decisions on climate and Indigenous peoples’ land rights. The Road to COP30 The Yaku Mama Flotilla arrived in Belém on November 9, the day before COP30 began. Its journey through the rivers and territories of the Amazon served as a reminder that Indigenous peoples are key actors shaping the future of our planet. They have managed vast rainforest territories for millennia. These rainforests regulate rainfall, store carbon, and shelter immense biodiversity and sociocultural diversity. In recent years, several studies have provided statistical evidence confirming that lands legally titled to Indigenous peoples are the most effective models for forest protection. “We want to achieve more than just guaranteeing money or financing. We want to reach a consensus where Indigenous territories are no longer sacrificed. This is the COP of the Amazon because we are here, demanding and taking the places that we deserve.”– Lucía Ixchiu, K’iche’ leader from Guatemala told Reuters in an interview Source: Rainforest Foundation

Flotilla participants during filming in Iquitos, Peru

Flotilla, News

Floating Cinema and Audiovisual Creation

Floating Cinema and Audiovisual Creation By: Lucia Ixchiu. We departed from the port of Tabatinga, heading upriver to immerse ourselves in a journey of floating cinema. From Iquitos, and several months prior, the team from the Muyuna collective—a group of artists, filmmakers, and cultural managers who have embraced cinema as a tool for territorial defense—expressed their desire to join and share their work and what they do best: community filmmaking. The day began with a call to a sharing circle where we moved our bodies, danced, and received the first instructions for what would be the start of a process that, for many of the Indigenous youth attending, was their first-ever film workshop. A storytelling exercise allowed us to unite our voices at the beginning of a collective, community-driven, and floating process. This process took place over four of the five days we navigated the Marañón River, with the lush jungle as our backdrop. It was a time of work sessions, dialogue, and learning for the entire flotilla, with everyone participating in one way or another. Cinema, cameras, and all our creativity took over the boat’s top deck. On this vessel, three groups were thinking, writing, and filming their movies, guided by the Muyuna team. On this boat, dreams have been part of the entire journey. Filming and initial edits took shape during the stretch from Tabatinga to Manaus, where the idea of creating a film festival for the flotilla’s audiovisual creations was born. This makes the journey even more inspiring—to tell and narrate our own story from our diversity, from the different languages and biomes that are part of the Yaku Mama. Making dreams come true. For some of the attendees, besides it being their first time leaving their country, it was also the first time they held a camera, a clapperboard, and sound equipment. To dream of using cinema not only to tell our stories but also to create a space to defend our territory.