Cop26 four years ago in Glasgow<\/a>, as the last three gatherings were held in locations with little tolerance for demonstrations \u2013 Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan.<\/p>\nThe \u201cGreat People\u2019s March\u201d comes at the halfway point of contentious negotiations and follows two protests earlier in the week that were led by indigenous activists from the Tapaj\u00f3s region.<\/p>\n
Raquel Wapichana has travelled nine hours from Roraima to be here Photograph: Jonathan Watts<\/p>\n
Early in the day, below a huge inflatable globe, a large group of indigenous protesters, many with face paint and feathered headdresses, were chanting as they waited for the march to begin.<\/p>\n
Raquel Wapichana travelled nine hours from Roraima to attend. She carried a sign saying: \u201cLet\u2019s struggle.\u201d She said: \u201cI am here for my people, my land, our rivers and our ancestors. We are constantly threatened by mining, by agribusiness and by land invasions. We must fight for our survival.\u201d<\/p>\n
A funeral for fossil fuels was staged as part of the march. Photograph: Jonathan Watts<\/p>\n
The most gothic section of the march was a \u201cfuneral for fossil fuels\u201d. A dozen \u201cmourners\u201d dressed in black rallied below two large ghoul puppets and three enormous coffins bearing the words \u201ccoal\u201d, \u201coil\u201d and \u201cgas\u201d. One woman, who gave the name Krishna and said she was an actor from Bel\u00e9m, looked like a figure from a Victorian horror story in a black lace veil and umbrella. \u201cOur lives depend on getting rid of fossil fuels. Our children and our future depend on our struggle. Through my art, I am here to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the many anti-capitalist areas of the march surrounded a large banner declaring: \u201cThe environmental collapse is capitalist: Lula, the energy transition with Amazon oil is a farce.\u201d Nearby, a sound truck blared out the Italian socialist anthem Bella Ciao. Among those marching here was Maria Melia of the Quilombola Movement of Maranh\u00e3o. She said she was fighting for the Amazon and against a \u201chydrovia\u201d water transport project that was cutting through the territory of her community.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators at the Bel\u00e9m march. Photograph: Jonathan Watts<\/p>\n
Some marchers held large images of capybaras. Fabricio (pictured above on right) told the Guardian: \u201cWe came to the march to say animals need to be protected, too. The negotiators have got to think about how biodiversity must be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was support for Palestine visible everywhere also, including flags and chants. Classic Brazilian songs were blasting out of speakers, in particular the popular track Anun\u00e7ia\u00e7\u00e3o by Al\u00e7eu Valen\u00e7a.<\/p>\n
Some marchers brought a 30-metre snake to carry through the streets symbolising the need to \u2018pay up\u2019! Photograph: Dharna Noor<\/p>\n
Towards the back of the march, 80 protesters held up a 30-metre-long cobra. The Guardian caught up with them as they were taking the sculpture apart. Cobra is a double entendre, they explained: The snake is a sacred animal for Indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon, and the word cobra also translates to \u201cpay up!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came here with the message that we need climate finance for the people living in the Amazon,\u201d said activist Helena Ramos of Brazilian grassroots organising coalition Amaz\u00f4nia da P\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Inspired by a dream that an Indigenous leader had, massive sculpture was built by 16 artists from Santar\u00e9m municipality in Par\u00e1 state, then brought over on a boat by the Indigenous youth movement the People\u2019s Alliance. It took 83 people to hold it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not too heavy,\u201d said Ramos. \u201cHolding it up is part of our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Demonstrators with a sign calling for action on the climate emergency. Photograph: Dharna Noor<\/p>\n
The talks still have one week to run, and it is unclear what the outcome will be. The Brazilian hosts have said they do not plan to issue a cover decision<\/a> \u2013 the agreement that is sometimes gavelled out at the end of the talk. Instead, they will focus on implementation. As yet no one is quite sure what that will look like.<\/p>\nMeanwhile delegates are also stuck on the \u201cbig four\u201d issues of climate finance; trade; transparency; and how to address the inadequacy of nations\u2019 recently submitted national climate plans \u2013 into a separate set of \u201cpresidency consultations\u201d, that emerged as countries tried to agree an agenda last Sunday, before the start of the two weeks of talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The streets of Bel\u00e9m echoed with indigenous chants, classical Brazilian songs and calls for environmental justice on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-293657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}