Why COP30 Marks a Turning Point: A Call to Heal the Amazon and Our Planet

By Chief Ninawa Inu Huni Kui

COP30 in the Amazon was more than a global summit—it was a moment of reckoning. For the first time, the world gathered not only to speak about the Amazon, but within it, surrounded by the forests, rivers, and ancestral territories that hold the breath of our planet. This gathering showed us what is at stake with a clarity that can no longer be ignored.

What became undeniable at COP30 is that Indigenous peoples are not simply witnesses to climate change—we are the first to feel its wounds. Our communities have long lived the reality the world is now beginning to understand: rivers drying, forests thinning, animals disappearing, and with them, pieces of our cultural identity. The summit illuminated what we have been saying for generations: when the Amazon suffers, all of humanity suffers.

Chief Ninawa Inu Huni Kui addresses COP30 from within the Amazon, calling on the world to recognize Indigenous leadership as essential to planetary survival. All photos by Melanie Pyne.

One of the deepest lessons from COP30 is that denunciation alone is no longer enough. We must build alliances powerful enough to transform the systems that endanger the forest. The presence of governments, banks, and corporations meant that those who shape global decisions had to confront the lived reality of our peoples. And for the first time, many of them listened—not out of courtesy, but because the urgency was undeniable.

Speaking alongside global leaders at COP30, Chief Ninawa Inu Huni Kui underscores that Indigenous peoples must be partners in shaping climate solutions.

COP30 marked a turning point because it revealed that protecting the Amazon cannot be a solitary Indigenous struggle. It must become a shared global responsibility. The commitments made in Belém must now move from speeches to policy, from promises to implementation, from declarations to life-preserving action. Respecting Indigenous demands and proposals is not an act of charity; it is a matter of planetary survival.

Earth Elders in dialogue at COP30, sharing Indigenous knowledge and responsibility rooted in care for land, water, and future generations.

A crucial lesson from the summit concerns the flow of climate finance. If investments meant to address the climate crisis do not reach the territories where the crisis is felt, they achieve nothing. COP30 exposed the gap between global pledges and local realities. What must change now is simple: resources must go directly to Indigenous peoples and communities on the frontlines, enabling us to protect and restore the forest as we have done for millennia.

But COP30 also revealed a danger. We saw clearly how corporate and financial interests continue to turn the Amazon into a commodity, speaking of the “financialization of nature” as if forests and rivers were mere assets. This path threatens our cultures, our spirituality, and our dignity. It threatens life itself.

Indigenous voices speaking together at COP30, affirming that the Amazon is a living being—not a commodity.

And yet, COP30 gave us hope. It brought the world face-to-face with the truth that the Amazon is not a resource—it is a living being. It is the heart of our climate system, the cradle of countless species, and the home of peoples whose guardianship keeps it alive. Protecting the Amazon is not a regional concern; it is a planetary mandate.

What happens next will determine whether COP30 becomes a symbolic gathering or a true turning point. The world has now heard our voices. It has seen the fragility and the power of the forest. It has felt the urgency of our call.

Now we must act—together.

A moment of exchange between Indigenous leaders during COP30 in the Amazon.

To heal the Amazon is to heal the Earth. And to heal the Earth, we must honour the leadership of those who know her rhythms, her medicines, and her laws. The decisions made today must serve life—human, animal, and spiritual—for generations to come.

This is why I raised my voice at COP30, and why I continue to call on the world: Protect the Amazon, and you protect the living heart of our planet.

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