Quilombolas call for greater participation in COP30 debates - BRAZIL 19/03/2025

Photo of a young Quilombola woman © Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil

Quilombolas call for greater participation in COP30 debates - BRAZIL

In the letter, representatives stress the importance of ancestral wisdom

Letycia Bond - Reporter for Agência Brasil

Published on 17/03/2025 - 18:00

São Paulo

Afro-descendant and quilombola communities are asking for more space at climate change meetings ahead of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), which will be held in November in Belém. The request was made in a letter published by the National Coordination of the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq).

In the document, the organization states that the silencing and invisibility of this population group is historical and that, by relegating them to the context of the conference, the Brazilian state, the federal government, and the organization of the event are failing to value ancestral knowledge and sustainable practices. Conaq advocates that Afro-descendants and quilombolas be “recognized in the preamble of the convention [on the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC)] and in the platforms of local communities and Indigenous peoples, with real rights to voice and vote in the main climate decision-making mechanisms and bodies”.

“We need to change this reality, ensuring that we are recognized as collective subjects of law, with active participation in national and international decisions,” adds the organization that advocates for the rights of quilombolas throughout the country.

For Conaq, this is more than a question of social justice, but also a necessity for building fair and effective solutions.

“Just a few months before the biggest global event on climate change, the erasure of the quilombola people's contributions to the struggle not only perpetuates social injustices but also jeopardizes the effectiveness of strategies to tackle the environmental challenges we all face,” the letter says.

The letter also says that COP30 must adopt concrete measures to guarantee the effective participation of Afro-descendant and quilombola communities in the climate negotiations. “This includes formal recognition of territorial rights as part of global climate solutions. We want and must be in this space and be treated equally as forest and water peoples.”

The 2022 Census, the most recent in Brazil, found that the country's quilombola population is 1,327,802 people, 0.65% of the country's total inhabitants. In all, 8,441 quilombola localities were identified in the country, associated with 7,666 declared quilombola communities.

The region with the most localities is the Northeast, with 5,386 (63.81%), followed by the Southeast, with 1,245 localities (14.75%), and the North with 1,228 (14.55%). With regard to the states with the highest numbers, the first on the list is Maranhão, which has 2,025 (23.99%). In second and third place are Bahia, with 1,814 locations, and Minas Gerais with 979 locations, corresponding to 21.49% and 11.60% of the total, respectively.

Agência Brasil has tried to contact the COP 30 organizers, the Civil House the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, and the ministries of the Environment and Climate Change and Racial Equality and is awaiting a response.

Originally published by Agência Brasil.