Countries must recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as a key component of tackling the climate crisis, and civil society must help in the defence of such lands against mining interests, Brazil's minister for Indigenous peoples has said. Sonia Guajajara, a longtime Indigenous activist before being appointed a minister by President Lula da Silva, said: [Among the goals of the Cop30 summit is] a request that countries recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as climate policy.
Today, the Rio Blanco mining camp in south-central Ecuador lies in ruins. Shattered china litters the ground not far from a hollowed-out kitchen with no walls left standing. An abandoned mine tunnel as wide as a house stands on a hillside, overlooking the charred remains of a diesel station. In 2018, environmentalists hailed Rio Blanco's closure as a landmark win for conservation.