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AFTER a weeks-long journey from glaciers in the Andes to Brazil’s tropical coast, a flotilla carrying dozens of Indigenous leaders arrived in Belem on Sunday, a day ahead of the United Nations’ COP30 climate summit.
Their mission: to demand a stronger voice in managing their lands as climate change intensifies and industries such as mining, oil drilling, and logging push deeper into the Amazon.
"We want to achieve more than just guaranteeing money or financing," Reuters reported Lucia Ixchiu saying.
Ixchiu, an Indigenous K’iche from Guatemala, was among the 60 passengers.
"We want to reach a consensus where Indigenous territories are no longer sacrificed." she added, "It's a dream and a goal, but we know there are many interests at play."
The expedition, which began at the headwaters of rivers feeding the Amazon, aimed to draw attention to the threats mountain glaciers face from climate change and extractive industries.
The Andes, the world’s longest mountain range, contain over 99 per cent of tropical glaciers, and nearly half of the Amazon River’s water comes from this region, which has lost between 30 and 50 per cent of its glacier ice since the 1980s, according to the 2025 UN World Water Development Report.
Along the route, the group paused in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil to highlight local challenges. In Coca, Ecuador, they held a funeral for fossil fuels, while in Manaus, Brazil, they screened short films and hosted community workshops.
Despite logistical hurdles and shifting river conditions, the leaders completed the journey aboard a three-storey wooden boat they named Yaku Mama, or Water Mother.
"Not everything has to revolve around money, Mother Earth isn’t a business," Ixchiu said. "There are other ways of relating with biodiversity and life on the planet that Indigenous populations have been practising for over 12,000 years."
She expressed optimism inspired by the commitment of the Indigenous youth on the 30-day journey, adding, "This is the COP of the Amazon because we are here, demanding and taking the places that we deserve."
A 2025 report by Earth Insight and the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities found that in the one-third of the Amazon rainforest occupied by Indigenous or local communities, around 17 per cent of these lands are now under pressure from oil, gas, mining, and logging concessions.
Meanwhile, Global Witness reported that more than 1,690 environmental defenders were killed or disappeared between 2012 and 2024 across the Amazon, Congo, Indonesia, Mexico, and Central America. - November 10, 2025
