Quilombolas call for greater participation in COP30 debates
Afro-descendant and quilombola communities are asking for more space in meetings on climate change ahead of the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30), to be held in Belém in November. The request was made in a letter published by the national association of black rural quilombola communities CONAQ.
In the document, the association states that the silencing and invisibility of this population group is historical and that, by neglecting them in the context of the conference, the Brazilian state, the federal government, and the organization of the event are failing to value ancestral knowledge and sustainable practices.
CONAQ advocates that the quilombolas—the descendants of enslaved people who founded communities known as quilombos—should be “recognized in the preamble of the convention [on the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention] and in the platforms of local communities and indigenous peoples, with real rights of voice and vote in the main climate decision-making mechanisms and bodies.”
“We need to change this reality, ensuring that we are recognized as rightful subjects within a collective enjoying an active role in both national and international decisions,” the organization adds.
In their view, this is more than social justice; it is a requirement for building fair solutions.
“A few months before the biggest global event on climate change, the erasure of the contributions of the quilombola people in the struggle not only perpetuates social injustices, but also undermines the strategies to tackle the environmental challenges we all face,” the letter reads.
The text also argues that COP30 should adopt measures to guarantee the participation of Afro-descendant and quilombos in climate talks. “This includes formal recognition of territorial rights as part of global climate solutions. We want to and must be in this space, and we must be treated equally as people of the forests and waters.”
Figures
The 2022 census, the most recent in Brazil, found that Brazil’s quilombola population totals 1,327,802—0.65 percent of the country’s total. In all, 8,441 quilombola sites were identified countrywide, associated with 7,666 declared quilombola communities.
The Brazilian region with the most sites is the Northeast, with 5,386 (63.81%), followed by the Southeast, with 1,245 (14.75%), and the North, with 1,228 (14.55%).
As for the states with the highest numbers, the first on the list is Maranhão, which has 2,025 (23.99%). Second and third are Bahia (1,814) and Minas Gerais (979), adding up to 21.49 and 11.60 percent of the total respectively.
