We, Indigenous Peoples, organizations, movements, and coalitions from Abya Yala and around the world, defenders of nature, the Amazon, and our rights, gather today in Quito for a clear reason: centuries ago, from this city, departed the missions that, under the pretext of ‘discovering’ the Great Amazon River, unleashed conquest upon our territories and the entire Amazon.

Today, from this very same point, in memory of October 12th—the beginning of the colonization of the Americas—and in commemoration of the first great uprising of Indigenous Peoples across the continent in 1992, we begin a new chapter. We set out not to conquer, but to connect. We set out so that the world may finally hear the voices from our territories.

On the eve of October 12, a date that marks centuries of dispossession, we present the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla, a coalition of peoples, communities, organizations, and movements uniting to travel 3,000 km from the Andean glaciers of Ecuador to Belém, Brazil, for COP30. United as one body—the Andes, the Amazon, and the world’s forests—we sail to remember that the life of the planet depends on the protection of our territories and our rights.

We sail to remind the world that true climate action is not signed in agreements—it is lived and defended in our territories every day. We sail to tell the world that the Amazon and our Indigenous and collective territories are the heart of the global climate response.

This journey is diversity in motion. At each stop, we will show the scars of extractivism—illegal mining, oil spills, false climate solutions—and we will also reveal the strength of our alternatives: the living forest economy, ancestral science, and collective governance.

We are not going to Belém to ask for a seat at the table; we are going to demand that climate policies be built from the territories, with justice for those of us who protect life.

OUR DENUNCIATIONS

• Our territories, the last refuges of life-sustaining resources, are being ravaged by climate change and extractivism.
• The so-called ‘energy transition’ being imposed upon us is nothing more than a new form of colonialism. Through the extraction of minerals and metals—like lithium and copper—for ‘green technologies,’ new sacrifice zones are created in our territories. This openly contradicts the sustainability discourse of COP30 and perpetuates climate hypocrisy, while criminalizing those who defend land and water.
• The climate crisis has colonial and extractivist roots, and those of us who are least responsible for causing it—Indigenous Peoples and grassroots territorial communities—are the most affected.
• Energy transition plans that create new sacrifice zones are forced upon us, we are denied participation in decisions and access to climate funds, while our defenders are criminalized and murdered.
• COP30 cannot continue to decide about us, without us.

OUR PROPOSALS AND DEMANDS

• Defending Territories as the Heart of Climate Action: We demand the recognition and guarantee of territorial rights to protect forests, rivers, and biodiversity.
• An Oil-Free Amazon: We demand a ban on fossil fuel exploration and extraction in the Amazon and in Indigenous territories worldwide to protect nature and the defenders of land and life. Only an Amazon free from oil, gas, and coal extraction can guarantee the protection of its defenders, preserve biodiversity, and ensure global climate resilience. The Amazon is not a resource to be exploited; it is a living being that must be protected.
• A Just and Binding Energy Transition: We demand that the energy transition be truly just, respecting Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and ending fossil fuel projects that threaten our territories and ways of life.
• Recognition and Protection of Intangible Zones: We demand the recognition and protection of intangible, exploitation-free zones where Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) live. The recognition, defense, and establishment of territories for PIACI are fundamental to guaranteeing their ways of life, the conservation of vast standing forests and biodiversity, the planet’s climate balance, and the quality of life for all its inhabitants.
• Direct Financing for the Guardians of Life: Climate funds must be agile and reach our communities directly, without intermediaries.
• Integration of Ancestral Knowledge and Cultural Diversity: We urge that our traditional knowledge and practices be recognized and integrated into climate policies as globally recognized and replicable solutions.
• Protection for Land and Environmental Defenders: We demand safety and an end to impunity for the threats, assassinations, and criminalization faced by those of us who defend the land, life, and the balance of the planet.

We sail from the middle of the world to shift the center of decision-making from boardrooms to the territories, because true climate justice is born from the land, flows with its rivers, and is upheld by those who protect it.

Declaration issued worldwide on October 9, 2025

Signatories: