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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

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Yaku Mama Navigation Diary: The Flotilla Was Born from a Dream

Yaku Mama Navigation Diary: The Flotilla Was Born from a Dream By: Leo Cerda In this entry of the Yaku Mama Navigation Diary, I want to share the dream that started it all. Our struggle is for racial, social, and climate justice. The Amazon is at a tipping point — it’s now or never. We need to amplify our voices and claim our rightful place in decision-making spaces, demanding that climate finance reach our communities directly and effectively. It’s not enough to acknowledge our role; it is essential to ensure resources that strengthen our autonomy, our initiatives, and our right to live in and defend our lands. If we fail to provide real and sustained support to those of us protecting the forests, we risk losing them forever — and without forests, there can be no future for humanity. Let this call resonate loudly: the world must listen to, learn from, and collaborate with Indigenous peoples to achieve true and lasting solutions. The Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla carries a shared message: we are not alone, and Indigenous communities offer powerful climate solutions grounded in lived experience. As we travel along the rivers of the Amazon, we carry an invitation — to life, to hope, and to reconciliation — challenging the legacy of violence, exploitation, and colonization. This journey is not one of conquest or destruction, but of unity, reconnection, and solutions from the territory itself — a living testament to the strength and resilience of the Amazon and its peoples.

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Press Release: The Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla Embarks on a Historic Journey to COP30

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

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The Amazon Flotilla Yaku Mama Sets Sail: 3,000 Kilometers Through the Amazon to Bring Their Peoples’ Voice to COP30

The Amazon Flotilla Yaku Mama Sets Sail: 3,000 Kilometers Through the Amazon to Bring Their Peoples’ Voice to COP30 Representatives of Indigenous communities have departed from the Andes in Ecuador, in the Amazon Flotilla Yaku Mama with the goal of ensuring the first climate summit held in the Amazon takes their demands, such as an end to fossil fuels, into account. The image of a woman carrying a live anaconda in her hands was a powerful sight on the morning of Thursday, October 16, at the port of the city of Francisco de Orellana, better known as El Coca, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The banner bearing this image hung from a two-story boat, docked and awaiting its passengers. Beside it, black letters on an orange background stood out not only for their color but for what they announced: “Yaku Mama, Amazon Flotilla: from the Andes to the Amazon. On the way to Belém for COP30.” The presence of this boat in the Ecuadorian port marked the beginning of the journey for more than 50 Indigenous representatives and organizations from across the Amazon basin. For nearly a month, the flotilla will travel along the Amazon River and its tributaries to Brazil to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), which will take place from November 10 to 21. This group will cover around 3,000 kilometers through four countries on various boats to bring Amazonian voices to the most important negotiations for the future of the planet. “The flotilla is a space to share experiences and reflect on issues that are discussed at the COPs and that have historically been addressed without the participation of Indigenous peoples,” explains Alexis Grefa, one of the youth representatives of the Kichwa people of Santa Clara, Ecuador, and part of the Amazon flotilla’s organizing team. At 29, Grefa is intimately familiar with how these negotiations are conducted, having participated in previous climate change and biodiversity COPs. On this occasion, as it is the first time the event is being held in an Amazonian city, he hopes that the demands of Indigenous peoples—such as direct financing, a just energy transition, the elimination of fossil fuels, and respect for prior consultation—will be taken into account. A Dream Come TrueThat Thursday morning, the boat began to fill with different accents, languages, and music. Some took photos, others explored the spaces, and a few sat to watch the landscape. The top deck became everyone’s favorite spot for its view of the Napo River. A few minutes into the journey, representatives of different Indigenous peoples and nationalities from the Ecuadorian Amazon offered words of encouragement and recalled the mission of the trip. “Let everyone know that in our communities, we are suffering from a giant monster that is attacking us,” said Elsa Cerda, a representative of the Yuturi Warmi women’s Indigenous guard, referring to mining and oil extraction. After a symbolic three-hour tour, the boat returned to the port of El Coca. To reach their first stop, Nueva Rocafuerte, on the border with Peru, it was necessary to take motorized speedboats, known as deslizadores, to shorten the travel time. Through his glasses, Grefa watched the banner from the port before departing. “It’s a collective dream,” he reflected, adjusting a t-shirt that also had a snake painted on it. This image of the anaconda, considered the keeper of the river, had already appeared in the dreams of people from different parts of the Amazon who helped organize the flotilla. That’s why, when the idea took shape, they decided to name it Yaku Mama (Mother Water) and use this serpent, which transforms into a woman, as their logo. The proposal to travel these rivers began to form when it was announced that Belém would host these negotiations. From that moment on, various organizations joined in to map out the route and define the activities. At each stop, events will be held to address issues relevant to those territories. In Ecuador, for example, before the flotilla’s departure from the Amazon, a visit was organized to the Cayambe glacier in the highlands to show the connection between the mountains, the páramos, and the rainforest. They also visited the country’s capital as a symbolic act. “Centuries ago, missions departed from Quito that claimed the discovery of the great Amazon River, bringing conquest to our territories,” says Leo Cerda, a Kichwa representative from Napo. Before arriving in El Coca, there was also a journey down the Jatunyaku River. For Noveni Usun, from the Dayak Bahau Indigenous group of Indonesia, visiting the communities on the banks of this river, which is affected by illegal mining in the Napo province, was one of the most impactful experiences. “This also happens in my region, and seeing how they fight here is very inspiring,” says the 28-year-old, who flew for three days from her country to Ecuador to be part of the flotilla. She is one of the members of this group, along with other representatives from Guatemala, Panama, and England, who are not from the Amazon basin but came to exchange experiences on the various threats affecting forests around the world. A Path to Bury Fossil FuelsIn El Coca, the day before the flotilla’s departure, a symbolic funeral for fossil fuels was held. Grefa and other group members carried a black cardboard coffin with signs on its sides that read “R.I.P. Oil” through the city streets. Behind them, the rest of the members marched with Yaku Mama banners and others with messages against fossil fuel exploitation. “Oil is part of biodiversity, and it is the companies that take it out of the earth and pollute. We are going to return it to where it belongs,” said Lucía Ixchiu, a Maya K’iche woman from Guatemala, as she received the coffin at the port. After lighting candles around it, symbolizing the deaths caused by fossil fuels and honoring murdered environmental defenders, representatives of different Indigenous nationalities of Ecuador showed their support for the act. The fight to reduce and eliminate fossil

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Yaku Mama Navigation Diary: Inside the Indigenous Flotilla on its Way to COP30

Yaku Mama Navigation Diary: Inside the Indigenous Flotilla on its Way to COP30 This will be a series of narrative and testimonial texts from the Yaku Mama Flotilla as it navigates the Amazon River towards Brazil.By Emergentes By: Lucía Ixchiu First Week With eyes full of green, amidst the sounds of water and the jungle, I begin this account from the heart of the flotilla. What is a Maya K’iche woman doing in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, on her way to Brazil? I feel the river and the jungle, and how we connect as the journey progresses. Between the waters of the Napo and Yasuní rivers, we head towards Pantoja, on the border between Ecuador and Peru, a region that, years ago, was in conflict. With the permission and the sound of grandmother Cayambe, the glacier where the Amazon River is born, and with our offering received by the earth, we began this journey. We have already covered a third of this voyage of sisterhood between territories, of solidarity and shared learning. For the K’iche people, forests are an essential part of their existence. To honor the Amazon is also to honor all the jungles and forests of the world. Our eyes fill with colors as we contemplate the biodiversity, but our souls ache knowing it is threatened by oil companies and all kinds of extractive industries that see it as a resource and a profitable business. The songs of birds break the silence, and the sound of water accompanies us on our second day down the river. The Waorani peoples lead the protection of the Yasuní National Park, having lived with it for hundreds of years, and today we came to their home. This is also the home of the pink river dolphin, which we briefly saw hide in the waters of the Jatuncocha lagoon, as well as hundreds of thousands of species that make up this great grandmother we call the Amazon rainforest. Right now, we are navigating downriver, to the south, to continue with this flotilla of hope and solidarity among peoples. For most of us participating in this journey, this is a territory we are visiting and observing for the first time. In Coca, we held an exchange to learn about the experiences of the peoples and organizations confronting fossil fuels. At the end of the day, we participated in a march for Mother Earth through the town’s streets, culminating in a political act where we covered the statue of Francisco de Orellana, to whom the conquest of the Amazon is attributed. We named the defenders of the Amazon who were taken from us and concluded with an exchange of speeches before embarking the next day. On this flotilla, composed of several small boats, we, Indigenous people from different parts of the continent and the world, are traveling. We have come to travel a route that seeks to amplify the voices of the territories and their first inhabitants.

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COP30: Indigenous Flotilla Departs from Ecuador for Belém

COP30: Indigenous Flotilla Departs from Ecuador for Belém SÃO PAULO – A group of Indigenous people has embarked on a journey of over 3,000 km along the rivers of Abya Yala—the ancestral name for the American continent. The Yaku Mama (Mother Water) Amazon flotilla began its journey in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, heading to COP30, the United Nations climate conference to be held in Belém, Pará, in November. Over the 25-day journey, the group is expected to grow in size along the route. Yaku Mama departed on October 8 from the region of the Cayambe volcano, following a sacred ritual, and plans to disembark in the Pará state capital on November 9, the eve of the conference’s start. Before that, they will travel through Coca and Nueva Rocafuerte in Ecuador; Iquitos in Peru; Leticia in Colombia; and Manaus and Santarém in Brazil. There is not yet a final count of how many boats and people are expected to arrive at COP30. According to the group, the objective is to promote joint climate justice agendas, as well as to document and share stories of climate action. The expedition also hopes to advance climate policies and financing that meet the priorities of the communities. In Belém, the work will also focus on advocating for the recognition and integration of traditional knowledge into climate solutions. Alexis Grefa, a Kichwa Indigenous person and one of the flotilla’s organizers, says that the trip is funded by collectives of Indigenous peoples. According to him, upon arriving in Belém, the group will divide itself among their own camps and the COP Village (Aldeia COP)—a space provided by the federal government for Indigenous peoples—in addition to the boats themselves. “The message of the caravan is the fight against predatory projects that exist in our territories, such as mining companies, oil companies, hydroelectric dams, and carbon markets. These are struggles we face with resistance daily in our territories,” Grefa tells Folha. “We hope that COP30 will be different from the last COPs. This edition truly gives us hope for a greater response. Above all, not just for negotiations, but also for Indigenous peoples to be invited to make the decisions,” he emphasizes. INDIGENOUS COALITION In October 2024, Indigenous people from the nine countries of the Amazon basin formed the G9, a new coalition group announced during COP16, the United Nations biodiversity conference held in Cali, Colombia. At that time, the group launched the “We Are the Answer” (“A Resposta Somos Nós”) campaign, which advocates for the same objectives as the Yaku Mama flotilla. Since then, Indigenous peoples have been pressuring their respective governments to defend the biomes, traditional peoples, biodiversity, and the global climate. In April of this year, the G9 met with Indigenous leaders from Oceania at the ATL (Free Land Camp), the largest mobilization of Indigenous peoples in Latin America, which takes place annually in Brasília. The meeting aligned demands that are to be raised at the climate conferences. Among the main demands is the demarcation of Indigenous land as a measure for nature preservation. One week after the ATL, activists from 70 countries also participated in a five-day program in Brasília on a just energy transition. At the event, they aligned their agendas on the effects of climate change on the most vulnerable peoples. The results of the debates and studies will be taken to the COP30.