An extraordinary journey along the Amazon River just took place. The Yaku Mama Flotilla traveled over 1,800 miles from the Andes in Ecuador to Belém, Brazil, the host city of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). This is the first time in history that the COP will take place in the Amazon. Onboard the flotilla were Indigenous leaders, youth, women, and allies, traveling with a shared message: Indigenous peoples must be at the center of climate solutions. Their demands, which include halting fossil fuel extraction in the rainforest, securing direct access to climate finance, and ensuring the protection of their territories and rights, must be heard and acted upon.

The flotilla is a space to share experiences and reflect on issues that are discussed at COPs, but that have historically been addressed without the participation of Indigenous people.

– Alexis Grefa, a Kichwa youth representative from Santa Clara in Ecuador and a member of the flotilla’s organizing team, in an interview with El País

Planning for the flotilla began soon after it was announced that COP30 would be hosted in Belém. Indigenous organizations across the Amazon Basin began planting and watering the seeds for a collective journey that would bring visibility to both their struggles and solutions to protect the rainforest. Rather than flying to the summit, they chose to travel by the rivers that connect their territories. And on October 13, the journey began.

More than 50 participants from Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia, and Scotland departed from El Coca, Ecuador. Their boats display the image of Yaku Mama, meaning “Mother Water” in Quechua, a sacred river serpent that symbolizes protection and strength.

The route the flotilla took retraced the path taken by Spanish colonizer Francisco de Orellana in 1541. While his expedition marked the beginning of colonization in the region, the flotilla became a journey of Indigenous solidarity and resistance against the continued destruction of the Amazon, the ancestral homes of Indigenous peoples.

Before departing down river, the group climbed the Cayambe glacier high in the Ecuadorian Andes to emphasize the ecological connection between highlands and rainforest. In the city of El Coca, they held a protest by covering a statue of Francisco de Orellana as a rejection of the legacy of extractivism and violence he represents. There, they also held a symbolic funeral for fossil fuels in the streets where youth leaders carried a black cardboard coffin labeled “R.I.P. Petróleo.” “We are returning oil to where it belongs, the earth,” said Lucía Ixchiu, a K’iche’ woman from Guatemala, as she lit candles to honor environmental defenders who lost their lives in defense of their lands. Finally, as the flotilla continued toward Ecuador’s border with Peru, they stopped at Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, an emblematic site of resistance to oil drilling.

A Platform for Demands Rooted in Territory

Along the way, the flotilla stopped in Indigenous and local communities to share knowledge and amplify urgent demands. These include:

• Stopping fossil fuel extraction in the Amazon and on Indigenous peoples’ lands
• Ensuring direct, agile climate funding for Indigenous communities
• Recognizing and protecting the lands of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation
• Advancing a just energy transition based on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC)
• Including Indigenous knowledge and governance in climate policy
• Protecting environmental defenders and ending impunity for violence against them

These demands from the flotilla participants stem from their lived experience in territories affected by oil spills, illegal mining, deforestation, and harmful infrastructure projects that are relentless.

Solidarity Across Borders

Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) was proud to support the Yaku Mama Flotilla during its passage through Peru along with our Indigenous partner, the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (ORPIO). This collaboration brought participants to communities where they visited community-led sustainable enterprises and learned how community members are using monitoring technology to strengthen territorial defense. 

In Peru’s northeastern Amazonian city of Iquitos, the flotilla joined the Floating Amazon Film Festival, where cinema brought to life stories of Indigenous resistance and self-determination. In a Tikuna community in Peru, community members welcomed the participants with dances and songs celebrating life. There, well-known Peruvian Amazonian singer Rossy War joined her voice with those of the Amazonian peoples, reminding everyone that music, too, can heal rivers.

The flotilla then continued through the tri-border region of Peru, Colombia, and Brazil, where interconnected territories form the world’s largest contiguous expanse of lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. These lands are also biodiversity strongholds. In a Tikuna community on the Brazilian side, participants learned about traditional ecological knowledge passed down through generations. Practices in natural medicine, fishing, and peaceful, sustained coexistence with the forest offered living models of a possible future.

In Leticia, Colombia, flotilla members met with Indigenous leaders engaged in public policy advocacy. The conversations highlighted the importance of regional coordination amongst Indigenous peoples and the need to ensure that Indigenous voices shape national and international decisions on climate and Indigenous peoples’ land rights. 

The Road to COP30

The Yaku Mama Flotilla arrived in Belém on November 9, the day before COP30 began. Its journey through the rivers and territories of the Amazon served as a reminder that Indigenous peoples are key actors shaping the future of our planet. They have managed vast rainforest territories for millennia. These rainforests regulate rainfall, store carbon, and shelter immense biodiversity and sociocultural diversity. In recent years, several studies have provided statistical evidence confirming that lands legally titled to Indigenous peoples are the most effective models for forest protection.

We want to achieve more than just guaranteeing money or financing. We want to reach a consensus where Indigenous territories are no longer sacrificed. This is the COP of the Amazon because we are here, demanding and taking the places that we deserve

– Lucía Ixchiu, K’iche’ leader from Guatemala told Reuters in an interview