"We Need to Be Heard": Indigenous Amazon Defender Alessandra Korap Munduruku on COP30 Protest
Thousands of Amazonian land defenders, both Indigenous peoples and their allies, have traveled to the COP30 U.N. climate conference in Belém, Brazil. On Friday night, an Indigenous-led march arrived at the perimeter of the COP’s “Blue Zone,” a secure area accessible only to those bearing official summit credentials. The group stormed security, kicking down a door before the United Nations police contained the protest. “We decided we needed to stop this COP,” says Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a leader of the protest, who joined us for an extended interview. “We are the ones that are saying what the forest is demanding. We are the ones that are saying what the river is asking for. We are going through a lot of violence in our territories.”