Belem, Brazil: Thousands of climate activists and Indigenous community members marched through the streets of Belem on Saturday, demanding that their voices be heard at the United Nations COP30 climate summit as negotiations reached their halfway point.
The demonstration, dubbed the “Great People’s March”, brought together Indigenous leaders, youth activists, and environmental defenders from across Brazil and beyond. The protest unfolded in a vibrant yet urgent atmosphere, with participants carrying a giant inflatable globe and waving Brazilian flags emblazoned with the message “Protected Amazon.”
The march marked the first major public protest outside the COP30 conference, which began earlier this week and has drawn world leaders, policymakers, scientists, and civil society representatives to the Amazonian city to address the deepening global climate crisis.
Indigenous activists have already disrupted summit proceedings in recent days, pressing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and other global leaders to take concrete action to safeguard Indigenous territories from deforestation, extractive industries, and land encroachment.
Amnesty International recently warned that billions of people worldwide are at risk due to the continued expansion of fossil fuel projects, including oil and gas pipelines and coal mining. Indigenous communities, the rights group said, often bear the brunt of these developments as they live on land rich in natural resources.
Speaking during the march, Benedito Huni Kuin, a 50-year-old member of the Huni Kuin Indigenous group from western Brazil, described the destruction of the Amazon as a crisis of survival.
“Today we are witnessing a massacre as our forest is being destroyed,” he told AFP. “We want to make our voices heard from the Amazon and demand real results. We need more Indigenous representatives at COP to defend our rights.”
Youth activists also played a visible role in the protest. Ana Heloisa Alves, a 27-year-old climate campaigner, said it was the largest demonstration she had ever taken part in. “This is incredible,” she told The Associated Press. “You can’t ignore all these people.”
The protests come amid growing concern over the slow pace of international climate action. Earlier this month, the United Nations warned that the world is very likely to breach the 1.5°C global warming threshold — a key target under the Paris Agreement — within the next decade.
A recent report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) found that even if countries fully implement their current climate pledges, global temperatures could rise by 2.3 to 2.5°C by the end of the century.
“While national climate plans have delivered some progress, it is nowhere near fast enough,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, calling for unprecedented emissions cuts in an increasingly narrow timeframe.
Despite the urgency, analysts and some COP30 participants remain sceptical about the prospects of major breakthroughs before the summit concludes on November 21. Still, hopes remain that progress can be made on unresolved commitments, particularly climate financing to help poorer nations adapt to rising temperatures and extreme weather.
As chants echoed through the streets of Belem, protesters sent a clear message to negotiators inside the conference halls: without Indigenous leadership and meaningful action, promises made at global climate summits risk remaining little more than words.
