The struggle for an Amazon region free of oil and mining has led indigenous people to travel more than 3,000 kilometers along the Amazon River to participate in the United Nations climate conference COP30, which begins on Monday (10) in Belém.
The ship Yako Mama (Mother of Water) with 62 indigenous people on board docked on Sunday (9) in the port of Goronas, after 29 days of travel. The group began their journey in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, traveling through Peru and Colombia until they reached Brazil.
“We arrived in Belém to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), where indigenous peoples have a historic opportunity to participate. We were excluded from many places of discussion,” says Alexis Greva, an indigenous person of the Quechua (Kichwa) ethnic group and one of the flotilla’s organizers.
Greva highlights that the fleet brought together indigenous people from Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Brazil. According to him, the exchange between different cultures and peoples aims to bring together the main challenges of each location.
He adds: “We are very happy to arrive here, at the conference, with a clear and strong message: we do not want people to talk about Amazon conservation without our participation, without us being part of it.”
Levi Tabuya, Brazil’s representative in the fleet, traveled to Ecuador to follow the activities from the beginning. He highlights that stops in indigenous areas along the way were also intended to raise issues to be presented to the COP30.
“We saw the problems of the regions, and at the same time, we saw the beauty. The way every people defends the Amazon is different everywhere. It is very wonderful that we come to COP30 with demands from different people, from different countries, in defense of the planet,” he concluded.
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