Kelly Guajajara

Press Release: The Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla Embarks on a Historic Journey to COP30 QUITO, ECUADOR – October 16, 2025. The “Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla“ is launching a symbolic journey from the city of Coca in Ecuador to demand a new paradigm: placing the Amazon at the heart of the fight for climate justice and promoting an end to fossil fuel extraction and use. Connecting the Andes to the Amazon, a coalition of 60 Indigenous and territorial organizations, alongside allies from around the world, will travel more than 3,000 kilometers toward COP30, to be held in Belém, Brazil, in early November. This journey is not just an act of protest but a powerful demand: climate justice must become a reality, and fossil fuel extraction in the Amazon must end now.  The flotilla participants previously gathered in Quito as a starting point. This choice was not merely symbolic but sought to confront history: it was from this city, in 1541, that Francisco de Orellana’s expedition departed, culminating in the ‘discovery’ of the Amazon River. Today, the “Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla” symbolically reverses that route of conquest into one of connection, honoring the resistance of Indigenous Peoples and the first continental uprising of 1992, with the goal of making the world finally listen to the voices of the territories. “This journey is an act of resistance and empowerment that links the climate crisis to its colonial and extractivist roots, positioning the peoples who have contributed least to it as the most affected. It is an urgent call to COP30 to recognize that true climate justice is born from the land, flows with its rivers, and is sustained by those who protect it,” stated Lucía Ixchú, a Maya K’iche’ Indigenous woman from Guatemala and spokesperson for the flotilla. To begin the journey, the flotilla’s crew, together with ally organizations, will hold a symbolic funeral to bid farewell to the era of fossil fuels that has devastated the Amazon. This collective action denounces the false solutions that, in the name of the energy transition, continue to impose extractive projects and new sacrifice zones on Indigenous territories. In response, the Amazonian peoples reclaim their right to decide over their territories and to lead the way toward a just and living transition without creating new sacrifice zones through mining, oil spills, and monocultures. The Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla demands a truly fair and binding energy transition. Indigenous Peoples urge governments and companies to ensure that any clean energy project respects Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and puts an end to fossil fuel developments that jeopardize their territories and ways of life. At the same time, they call for the recognition and protection of intangible zones for Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI), whose existence and well-being depend on territories free from exploitation. Protecting these forests not only guarantees the survival of these peoples but also preserves biodiversity, maintains global climate balance, and ensures the quality of life for all inhabitants of the planet. The journey begins at a critical time for the Amazon. According to a report presented by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) last year, 2024 marked a devastating record with the loss of 4.5 million hectares of primary forest due to deforestation and fires. This destruction is driven by the advance of extractivism; the same study reveals that deforestation from gold mining has increased by over 50% since 2018, with 36% of it occurring within protected areas and Indigenous territories. The River That Flows: from History to Hope “We are in Ecuador today for a very specific reason. Centuries ago, missions departed from Quito that claimed the ‘discovery’ of the Great Amazon River, bringing conquest to our territories,” affirmed Leo Cerda, a Kichwa Indigenous person from Napo, Ecuador. “We too have come to Quito, that historic starting point, to reclaim this route. And on October 16th, from Francisco de Orellana—the city of Coca—we will embark on a new journey that honors the memory of struggle and resistance of the Amazonian Indigenous Peoples. We also dedicate this journey to the memory of October 12th as a symbol of the resilience of the Peoples of the Americas. We set out not to conquer, but to connect; so that the world, finally, will listen to the voices of the territory,” he added. The flotilla is composed of a delegation of fifty people, including representatives of Indigenous peoples and civil society organizations from the Amazon, Mesoamerica, the Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. It will travel the Amazon River to denounce the “scars of extractivism”—such as illegal mining and deforestation—and, at the same time, highlight the strength of the living alternatives in their communities, such as productive enterprises, territorial monitoring, and ancestral science. The Era of Fossil Fuels in the Amazon Must End Fossil fuels not only harm the environment; they are a driver of social violence.  Worldwide, especially in the Amazon, defending the territory has become a death sentence. According to the latest report from Global Witness, published in 2024, between 2012 and 2024 alone, at least 2,253 defenders have been murdered or have disappeared, 40% of whom were Indigenous. Violence against the Amazon is manifested in the silent expansion of the oil and fossil gas industry. Between 2012 and 2020, the number of exploitation fields increased by 13%, and today, extraction is present in eight of the nine Amazonian countries. According to InfoAmazonia and Arayara, oil exploration overlaps with 441 ancestral territories and 61 natural protected areas, devouring the rainforest and directly threatening the lives and self-determination of Indigenous peoples. Across the Pan-Amazon, there are 933 oil and gas blocks, of which 472 are in Brazil, 71 in Ecuador, 59 in Peru, and 47 in Colombia, many located within protected areas or Indigenous territories. The impact of this industry is devastating: between 2000 and 2023, Peru recorded 831 oil spills, and Ecuador, 1,584 between 2012 and 2022. In Brazil, the attempt to open a new oil frontier at the mouth