From the banks of the Napo River in Coca, Ecuador, the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla – draped in bright fabrics and banners bearing the slogan “End Fossil Fuels – Climate Justice Now” – departed under the rising sun, embarking on its historic journey of more than 3,000 kilometers to the United Nations Climate Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. This will be a journey that seeks to reverse the path of conquest and transform it into a path of connection, unity, and resistance.
Amazon Watch staff stood in solidarity with Indigenous leaders and grassroots allies as they held a symbolic funeral for the fossil fuel era, laying to rest an extractive model that has devastated the Amazon and its peoples. The flotilla’s launch was not only an act of defiance, but also a celebration of resilience and life. It was a powerful reminder that climate justice begins in the territories and flows, like the rivers of the Amazon, from those who have defended them for generations.
Indigenous leaders from across the region spoke of the urgency of protecting their territories from oil, mining, and industrial agriculture. They called for a just energy transition led by those most affected by the climate crisis, not dictated from corporate boardrooms or government offices. As the flotilla pushed off and disappeared around the river’s curve, the symbolism was striking: from the same point where colonial expeditions once departed, a new journey for climate justice now begins.
“We set out not to conquer, but to connect; so that the world, finally, will listen to the voices of the Amazon.”
– Leo Cerda, Kichwa Indigenous activist from Napo, Ecuador.
As the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla makes its way downriver, it carries with it a collective demand: COP30 must mark the end of fossil fuels in the Amazon and the beginning of a new era of justice, dignity, and self-determination for Indigenous peoples.
