The protesters, including Indigenous groups and members of left-wing organizations, managed to breach the security perimeter of the conference, an unusual incident given the strict safety protocols of such global events. When security staff pushed them back forcefully before they reached the summit’s “main hall,” clashes erupted, leaving two guards slightly injured.
The protesters marched to demand a halt to resource extraction, tree cutting, and agribusiness expansion in the Amazon rainforest, a region vital to regulating the planet’s climate by absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, one of the key greenhouse gases driving global warming.
Although Indigenous peoples safeguard roughly 80% of global biodiversity, they receive less than 1% of international climate funding.
This year’s conference has been described by Brazilian organizers as “the COP of Indigenous Peoples,” promising to put Indigenous voices at the center of climate negotiations. Around 3,000 Indigenous delegates from across the world are taking part in the summit. Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, largely due to their dependence on the natural environment and its resources.
