Yaku Mama flotilla goes to COP30 with demands from indigenous peoples
More than 60 leaders and environmental activists completed a 25-day boat trip and arrived in Belém on Monday (Nov. 10) to present their demands during the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).
The initiative was conceived by indigenous entities in South America, including Brazil’s APIB. The Yaku Mama flotilla left Ecuador and passed through Colombia before reaching Belém.
The spokesperson for the flotilla, Lucia Ixchiu, said that their goal is to create joint strategies among indigenous peoples.
“For us, the most important thing is to build solidarity across borders, because the global situation is really difficult. We need, for example, to combat pollution in the Amazon River,” she said.
Another demand is greater participation in the management of their territories. They also want access to drinking water and more effective measures to combat mining, oil exploration, and violence against indigenous people.
Indigenous leader Pablo Inuma Flores, from the Bajo Madre de Dios region in Peru, stressed the need of constructive dialogue.
“The goal is to have clean fuels that do not pollute and to prevent spills. We want zero fossil fuels, zero illegal mining, zero extractivism, zero deforestation, and zero illegal logging,” he said.
