{"id":6154,"date":"2025-11-09T18:40:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amazonflotilla.quipa.org\/?p=6154"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:04:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:04:58","slug":"indigenous-peoples-cop30-amazon-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amazonflotilla.quipa.org\/en\/indigenous-peoples-cop30-amazon-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Flotilla: Indigenous Peoples Must be at the Center of COP30 Climate Negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amazon Flotilla: Indigenous Peoples Must be at the Center of COP30 Climate Negotiations<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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Along its journey, the flotilla stopped in Indigenous and local communities to exchange knowledge and elevate urgent demands from the Amazon. IMAGE CREDIT: Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla Collaborative Coverage<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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An extraordinary journey along the Amazon River just took place. The Yaku Mama Flotilla<\/a> traveled over 1,800 miles from the Andes in Ecuador to Bel\u00e9m, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The flotilla is a space to share experiences and reflect on issues that are discussed at COPs,
but that have\u00a0historically been addressed without the participation of Indigenous people.<\/strong>“
\u2013\u00a0Alexis Grefa<\/strong>, a Kichwa youth representative from Santa Clara in Ecuador
and a member of the flotilla\u2019s organizing team, in an\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0with El Pa\u00eds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Alexis
Alexis Grefa. IMAGE CREDIT: Hackeo Cultural<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Planning for the flotilla began soon after it was announced that COP30 would be hosted in Bel\u00e9m. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cMother Water\u201d in Quechua, a sacred river serpent that symbolizes protection and strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cR.I.P. Petr\u00f3leo.\u201d \u201cWe are returning oil to where it belongs, the earth,\u201d said Luc\u00eda Ixchiu, a K\u2019iche\u2019 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\u2019s border with Peru, they stopped at Ecuador\u2019s Yasun\u00ed National Park, an emblematic site of resistance to oil drilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Yakumama Amazon Flotilla arrived in Bel\u00e9m do Par\u00e1 on Sunday, November 10, just in time to join the COP30 climate negotiations. IMAGE CREDIT: Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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A Platform for Demands Rooted in Territory<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Along the way, the flotilla stopped in Indigenous and local communities to share knowledge and amplify urgent demands. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n