Indigenous peoples’ demands got more than lip service at COP30 climate summit

The long ordeal of the Kaxuyana, an Amazonian tribe airlifted from its land during Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1960s, reached a happy conclusion at the COP30 summit in the city of Belém.

On the sidelines of the United Nations climate talks, which ended over the weekend, Brazil officially recognized the Kaxuyana’s original territory, a vast stretch of old-growth rainforest roughly the size of El Salvador a few hundred miles west of Belém, in the state of Pará.

It wasn’t the only victory at COP30 for Indigenous people, who had unprecedented visibility at the conference, where they staged multiple protests and adorned attendees with body painting, an art of the Kayapó people. Some 3,000 Indigenous people gathered in Belém for the event, and there were more than 400 representatives from 361 different ethnic groups accredited for COP30, according to the Brazilian government.

Many Indigenous leaders complained they were excluded from formal negotiations, and proposals to wean economies off fossil fuels and stop deforestation — which had Indigenous backing — were left out of the final agreement. But at the summit’s end, advocates could point to official recognition of the role of Indigenous stewardship in protecting forests and a $1.8-billion financing pledge as well as newly designated territories.

“The global community increasingly understands that Indigenous-managed territories are among the most effective at conserving biodiversity and maintaining carbon sinks,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

At least three official documents that came out of the summit mention Indigenous peoples. The “Global Mutirão” text recognizes their “land rights and traditional knowledge.” The mitigation work program text highlights “the vital role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities” in sustainably managing forests, and calls for recognition of their land rights as part of long-term climate policy. The just transition document refers to “rights and protections for Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact.”

This was the first time that a COP acknowledged Indigenous land rights and forest management as key climate mitigation policies, said David Kaimowitz, Amazon basin coordinator for the Tenure Facility, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous and local communities.

But there was criticism, too. Emil Gualinga, from the Kichwa Peoples of Sarayaku in Ecuador and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, said that grouping Indigenous peoples with “local communities” risks legal confusion over land rights.

That term has no international definition and varies by nation, opening loopholes that non-Indigenous groups have used to claim property titles within Indigenous territories, he said.

COP30 also saw a step forward on direct financing. The U.K., Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, along with the Ford, Rockefeller and Skoll foundations and other groups, pledged $1.8 billion through 2030 to the Forest and Land Tenure Pledge. The funds will support projects to secure land rights, finance conservation and restoration and strengthen local institutions in Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

(Endorsers of the pledge include the Protecting Our Planet Challenge. One of its members is Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic organization of Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

Those funds will now go directly to Indigenous organizations rather than through intermediaries, said Dinamam Tuxá, executive director of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.

The creation of Kaxuyana-Tunayana land and three other Indigenous territories in Brazil was announced Tuesday at a packed ceremony led by Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples Minister Sônia Guajajara.

The Kaxuyana’s odyssey began in 1968. After their population was nearly decimated by diseases such as measles, the Brazilian military relocated 48 survivors from their original territory in the Trombetas River basin to a religious settlement dozens of miles away, clearing the way for hydroelectric and mining projects.

In the early 2000s, as their population grew, the group decided to return, beginning the long process of reclaiming their land.

At a large march in Belém on Nov. 15, members of the tribe carried banners demanding recognition. Two days later, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the decree designating their land, which is also home to nine other ethnic groups, including two that remain uncontacted.

At the ceremony, many in the audience were in tears. “It was very emotional because the elders who were taken at that time were present,” said Indigenous leader Ângela Kaxuyana. “It took so many years that we could hardly believe this moment had arrived — and that it happened here at COP, in the Amazon, in Pará. We are in great joy.”

Maisonnave reports for Bloomberg. Vanessa Dezem contributed to this report.