After COP30, Indigenous narratives are more important than ever 

This article After COP30, Indigenous narratives are more important than ever  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

As last month’s COP30 climate negotiations unfolded in Belém, Brazil, activists converged on the city to advocate for keeping fossil fuels in the ground and protecting carbon-rich ecosystems. At the center of large public demonstrations in Belém were an unprecedented number of people from Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other communities with deep ties to traditional lands.

COP30 stood out from other recent U.N. climate summits, partly because of the key role Indigenous representatives played. It also featured large protests after three successive years of the annual COP summits being held in countries whose governments are friendly to fossil fuels and hostile to dissent. 

“For the first time since 2021, we saw major climate protests inside and outside COP,” said Yurshell Rodríguez, who attended as a member of the Indigenous and community-led group If Not Us Then Who? “Indigenous delegates were there not just to participate, but to lead.”

In all, more than 900 representatives of Indigenous nations and Indigenous-led groups attended COP30 as registered participants, while thousands more advocated outside the negotiations. At least 385 distinct Indigenous nations were represented, including over 300 from Brazil alone. 

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil has projected the image of a country eager to lead on climate and sympathetic to demands from its Indigenous population. Brazil’s Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara, played a key part in COP30. Partly as a result, activists had high hopes that the summit might lead to breakthroughs for global recognition of Indigenous land rights.

Not all these hopes were realized. However, events at COP30 showed that the role of Indigenous peoples as defenders of Earth’s climate is gaining widespread recognition, despite the slow rate of progress toward returning lands to Indigenous control.  

“Social movements are connecting dots the official COP negotiations avoid,” Rodríguez said. “Our message is clear: You want climate solutions? You need us.”

Centering Indigenous voices 

Rodríguez’s path to attending COP30 began when she was growing up in Colombia. Home to around 10 percent of Earth’s biodiversity and the third largest expanse of Amazon rainforest, Colombia is also at the center of centuries-old struggles against colonization. Rodríguez, who belongs to Colombia’s Afro-Indigenous Raizal ethnic group, grew concerned at an early age about how extractive industries endanger both communities and Earth’s climate. 

In 2018, Rodríguez was one of 25 young plaintiffs in a groundbreaking lawsuit that led Colombia’s highest court to rule that the government must do more to curb deforestation. Over the next few years, she attended COP climate summits in Madrid, Glasgow and Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. She also became a trainer for If Not Us Then Who?, which seeks to elevate Indigenous voices in conversations about climate change.

“Sometimes protecting nature looks like resistance,” Rodríguez said. “It looks like communities confronting governments that want to exploit their land and forests.”

Rodríguez’s work brought her to the attention of Health In Harmony, an international non-governmental organization that supports community-focused efforts to protect rainforests in tropical countries. The organization was looking for ways to communicate the importance of this work while uplifting communities with ties to land.

“We realized community stories needed to be at the front of the climate narrative, because climate science just goes right over many people’s heads and governments are failing to make good on their commitments,” said Ashley Emerson, who oversees Health In Harmony’s international programs. 

Rodríguez got involved in Health In Harmony’s Community Thriving Narratives project, which sought to put technology and storytelling tools directly in the hands of communities in Panama. With support from the FSC Indigenous Foundation and Ulu Films, Rodríguez led multiple three-day trainings in Panama’s Darién province. Over 40 people attended, practicing skills like video and audio recording, smartphone filming and using editing software.

Central to this project was the idea that Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups should have “narrative sovereignty,” telling their own stories without having to go through intermediaries. 

“Having an Indigenous person who’s experienced similar struggles lead the training is important,” Rodríguez said. “Being an Afro-Indigenous woman myself means I can help people feel safer, respected and seen.”

The original plan for the project in Darién Province was to document traditional practices like face painting, language preservation and water management. But then things took an unexpected turn.

In March, Panama’s government passed the controversial Law 462, which changes the country’s Social Security Fund, opening the door to privatization and putting thousands of pensions at risk. This directly affected communities with whom Rodríguez was working.

“At that point, they decided to document this current reality,” Rodríguez said.

That pivot toward focusing on an ongoing policy crisis reflects an important truth: Solutions to climate change involve not just regulating emissions, but protecting the well-being of communities whose roots to a place make them the best defenders of ecosystems.

Resisting threats 

“Sometimes protecting the forest means resisting the systems that are harming it,” Rodríguez said. This can entail fighting back against policies like Panama’s Law 462. 

In the spring, people in Darién Province and throughout Panama mobilized to protest the new law with marches, a teachers’ strike and nonviolent road blockades. National Police responded by firing pellets and tear gas at protesters and imprisoning community leaders. While Law 462 remains in place, community leaders remain determined to push for its repeal. 

Rodríguez worked with Darién residents to make short films documenting the violence and other challenges they face. The videos are available on YouTube, and their creators hope disseminating them on social media will help draw worldwide attention to the struggles in Darién Province. 

International organizations like Health In Harmony have also mobilized to support Panamanian activists. 

“We used our platforms to raise funds for areas that face food shortages from disruptions caused by the police violence,” Emerson said.

Indigenous leaders’ calls for climate justice at COP30 were similarly entwined with concerns about threats to their communities, both from resource extraction and violence against those who speak out. According to advocacy group Global Witness, 146 land defenders around the world were killed or disappeared last year alone. 

During one COP30 protest, members of Brazil’s Indigenous Munduruku Nation blockaded the main entrance to the part of the conference where official negotiations took place, to peacefully protest extractive activities on Munduruku lands. Despite such actions, COP30 concluded with no roadmap to phase out fossil fuel use or deforestation — but outside the main negotiations, countries announced some significant new programs. These include an international fund launched by Brazil to help developing countries protect tropical forests, which aims to raise $25 billion.

Fifteen governments also announced an Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment, part of a global effort to recognize and protect 160 million hectares of Indigenous and community-held lands by 2030. Questions remain about how national governments will make good on this promise. However, if they follow through, COP30 could represent a turning point toward greater recognition of Indigenous land rights. 

Land defenders are prepared to hold governments accountable, in part by elevating the voices of those who stand up to extractive industries.

“We are working to build and strengthen a continental network of Indigenous and Afro-descendant storytellers,” said Rodríguez. 

As part of this effort, Health In Harmony and If Not Us Then Who? are looking to spread the Community Thriving Narratives model beyond Panama. Brazil, whose vibrant Indigenous and land-based movements helped set the tone at COP30, is one likely area for expansion.

“Our long-term vision is simple,” Rodríguez said. “Restore narrative sovereignty, amplify frontline voices, and shift global climate conversations toward justice and self-determination.”

This article After COP30, Indigenous narratives are more important than ever  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/12/cop30-indigenous-narratives/