COP30 is a historic convergence in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous leaders and scientists are united in calling for urgent action on the clear, actionable steps to protect the Amazon and climate, as outlined in the Indigenous Declaration, as world leaders convene in the Amazon for COP30. The planet’s greatest climate, biodiversity and water safeguard stands at the center of global attention. This is the moment to urge bold, decisive action to permanently protect the Amazon Rainforest before it’s too late.

Amazonia: A Global Life Support System

The Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest tropical forest and home to unparalleled biocultural diversity, is a central pump of the global water cycle, a cornerstone of global ecological stability, and a critical player in the fight against climate change. As humanity navigates the transition to a low-carbon and regenerative future, safeguarding the Amazon is not just a moral imperative but a critical climate solution to sustain the balance of life on Earth.

Amazonia’s Unique Role in Climate Stability

The Amazon is vital to the stability of the planet, contains 20% of the world's fresh water, stores up to 100 billion tons of carbon, regulates the global climate, and is at a point of no return. The forest produces 20% of the world’s freshwater, influencing rainfall patterns and temperatures across continents. These hydrological cycles are essential for global food and water security, and climate resilience.

The Amazon holds approximately 150 billion tons of carbon, serving as one of Earth’s most vital carbon sinks. Its vast expanse of water and life, stored in soil and vegetation, sustains ecosystems. The forest produces 20% of the world’s freshwater, influencing rainfall patterns and temperatures across continents. These hydrological cycles are essential for global food and water security, and climate resilience.

The Amazon is at a tipping point of ecological collapse.

In recent years, the Amazon has lost more than 88 million hectares of forest as a direct result of extractive activities, including those related to fossil fuels and mining, the advance of agriculture and livestock farming, and infrastructure projects in the territories of Indigenous Peoples. These activities accelerate biodiversity loss, disrupt global rainfall patterns, threatenfood and water security, and violate human rights. Addressing these challenges requires urgent restoration of the Amazon’s hydrological and ecological functions.

Biocultural Diversity: A Message from the Heart of the Amazon

For thousands of years, we have inhabited the Amazon and protected it, keeping its ecosystems intact to ensure climate balance, biodiversity, and life cycles. We are more than 500 indigenous peoples and more than 188 peoples in isolation, possessors of knowledge systems that have preserved the world's largest tropical forest, territories that today represent the largest carbon sinks on the planet.

Our territories are living spaces where nature, spirituality, indigenous science, and community go hand in hand. Our ways of life already offer concrete solutions to address climate change and biodiversity loss with justice and effectiveness. That is why we assert that we are not only guardians: we are climate and environmental authorities.

Supporting Indigenous-Led Solutions and a Regenerative Bioeconomy

A regenerative bioeconomy—rooted in millennia-old Indigenous and local stewardship—keeps the forest standing while securing livelihoods, culture, and food sovereignty, in line with the G20’s 10 High-Level Principles and global climate/biodiversity goals. To realize this potential, the prevailing deforestation-based model must give way to regeneration, with territorial security and the protection of Indigenous rights as the non-negotiable foundation.