Indigenous leaders want same clout as world leaders at UN climate talks [Video]

Some 8,000 Indigenous people from the Amazon rainforest and the Pacific converged on Brazil’s capital Monday to demand an equal say as politicians when the country hosts this year’s UN climate conference.

Members of about 200 Indigenous communities from Latin American and Pacific territories, including Aboriginal Australians, were taking part in an annual gathering of Indigenous peoples in Brasilia.

Wearing brightly colored traditional dress and body paint, they insisted that Indigenous leaders be given “as much of a voice and power” as world leaders at the UN COP30 conference to be held in the Amazon city of Belem in November.

They also demanded direct funding for environmental protection and projects to help Indigenous communities adapt to the effects of climate change.

Despite living oceans apart, the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Oceania all live on the frontlines of global warming, with rising sea levels threatening to submerge low-lying Pacific …