The long ordeal of the Kaxuyana, an Amazonian tribe airlifted from its land during Brazil’s military dictatorship, reached a happy conclusion at the COP30 summit in the city of Belem.
On the sidelines of the United Nations climate talks, which ended Saturday, Brazil officially recognized the Kaxuyana’s original territory, a vast stretch of primary rainforest roughly the size of El Salvador a few hundred miles west of Belem, in the state of Para.
It wasn’t the only victory at COP30 for Indigenous peoples, who had unprecedented visibility at the conference, where they staged multiple protests and adorned attendees with body painting, an art of the Kayapo people. Some 3,000 Indigenous people gathered in Belem for the event, and there were more than 400 representatives from 361 different ethnic groups accredited for COP30, according to the Brazilian government.
Many Indigenous leaders said they were excluded from formal negotiations, and proposals for road maps to wean economies off fossil fuels and stop deforestation — which had Indigenous backing — were left out of the final agreement. But at the summit’s end, advocates could point to official recognition of the role of Indigenous stewardship in protecting forests and a $1.8 billion financing pledge as well as newly designated territories.
“The global community increasingly understands that Indigenous-managed territories are among the most effective at conserving biodiversity and maintaining carbon sinks,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
At least three official documents that came out of the summit mention Indigenous peoples. The “Global Mutirao” text recognizes their “land rights and traditional knowledge.” The mitigation work program text highlights “the vital role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities” in managing forests sustainably, and calls for recognition of their land rights as part of long-term climate policy. The just transition document refers to “rights and protections for Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact.”
This was the first time that a COP acknowledged Indigenous land rights and forest management as key climate mitigation policies, said David Kaimowitz, Amazon basin coordinator for the Tenure Facility, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous and local communities.
But there was criticism, too. Emil Gualinga, from the Kichwa Peoples of Sarayaku in Ecuador and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, said that grouping Indigenous peoples with “local communities” risks legal confusion over land rights.
The term has no international definition and varies by national law, opening loopholes that non-Indigenous groups have used to claim property titles within Indigenous territories, he said.
COP30 also saw a step forward on direct financing. The U.K., Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, along with the Ford, Rockefeller and Skoll foundations and other groups, pledged $1.8 billion through 2030 to the Forest and Land Tenure Pledge. The funds will support projects to secure land rights, finance conservation and restoration and strengthen local institutions in Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories across Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The pledge renews an initiative launched at COP26, but with a key change: The funds will now go directly to Indigenous organizations rather than through intermediaries, said Dinamam Tuxa, executive director of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.
The creation of Kaxuyana-Tunayana land and three other Indigenous territories in Brazil was announced Nov. 18 at a packed ceremony led by the country’s Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara.
The Kaxuyana’s odyssey began in 1968. After their population was nearly decimated by diseases such as measles, the Brazilian military relocated 48 survivors from their original territory in the Trombetas River basin to a religious settlement dozens of miles away, clearing the way for hydroelectric and mining projects.
In the early 2000s, as their population grew, the group decided to return, beginning the long process of reclaiming their land.
At a large march in Belem on Nov. 15, members of the tribe carried banners demanding recognition. Two days later, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the decree designating their land, which is also home to nine other ethnic groups, including two that remain uncontacted.
At the ceremony, many in the audience were in tears. “It was very emotional because the elders who were taken at that time were present,” said Indigenous leader Angela Kaxuyana. “It took so many years that we could hardly believe this moment had arrived — and that it happened here at COP, in the Amazon, in Para. We are in great joy.”