COP30 in Belém: The Amazon Seeks to Curb the “Bulldozer Culture” with Ancestral Wisdom

The historic climate summit is being held for the first time in the heart of the Amazon, facing the bulldozer culture pressure of deforestation and the record influence of lobbyists with unprecedented indigenous participation.

Belém, Brazil, is preparing to be the epicenter of global climate diplomacy by hosting the COP30 in Belém in November 2025. For the first time, the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) on Climate Change is being held in the heart of the Amazon, a setting that exposes the most urgent contradiction of the climate crisis: the struggle between sustainability goals and the “bulldozer culture” driving deforestation.

Despite previous agreements like those of Kyoto and Paris, the extractivist model—based on agribusiness, livestock, and mining—has not stopped. According to reports, in less than four decades, the Amazon has lost more than 88 million hectares of biodiversity, an area that exacerbates both global temperature and extreme climatic events.

The summit in Brazil faces a credibility challenge that has marked previous editions: the excessive influence of corporate interests. At COP28 (Dubai), a record number of 2,456 lobbyists from fossil fuels and 308 from agribusiness were registered, a presence that, according to civil organizations, undermines real commitments.

In this context, the COP30 in Belém is shaping up to be a turning point thanks to a historic mobilization of indigenous peoples. An unprecedented participation is expected: nearly a thousand indigenous representatives from around the world and 360 Brazilian leaders accredited in the “Blue Zone“, the area of formal negotiations. Meanwhile, the “COP Village” will serve as a cultural and spiritual space for 3,000 people, and the “People’s Summit“, a counter-summit, aims to gather more than 10,000 voices from indigenous communities.

The demands of the 400 Amazonian peoples are clear: protection of their territories, direct financing, autonomy, and the recognition of their ancestral knowledge as a fundamental part of the solution.

Sonia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, has stated that this COP must inaugurate a new climate governance capable of “reforesting minds“. The hope of the Amazon lies in science and political power finally listening and integrating with ancestral wisdom, proposing a transition that is not only energetic but deeply cultural: moving from the “bulldozer culture” model to one of care.

The B movement and indigenous peoples

Initiatives like the “B Movement” (companies with purpose) have also joined, proposing a “just transition” that aligns financial benefits with environmental and social responsibility. From the “+B Amazonia 2025 Meeting“, held in September as a prelude to COP30, a collective letter emerged.

The main requests: that COP30 respond to the scientific and moral urgency of protecting the Amazon and the planet, that it promotes a just transition towards inclusive economies that align financial benefits with social and environmental responsibility, that it drives collective action among companies, civil society, and governments, oriented towards concrete and measurable goals, and that it values indigenous peoples and traditional communities, recognizing their leadership and integrating their ancestral knowledge into global decisions.

This document will constitute a direct contribution to the “Global Ethical Balance“, a key initiative promoted by President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Minister Marina Silva, and the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, within the framework of the summit. The letter concluded by especially calling for

Food without deforestation

Zafrán, Honest Recipes, is an Argentine Certified B Corporation that attended the “+B Amazonia 2025 Meeting” in Belém from which the movement’s letter presented to the Global Ethical Balance emerged.

As a Latin American food company, Zafrán shares the challenge of producing food that reduces deforestation, biodiversity loss, and emissions. “I believe the solution is collective action and that it starts with collective listening, listening to indigenous communities, the Amazon, everyone.

No action is sufficient if it is individual. We need to converge, be transparent about what we do, ask for help, inspire, converse… If small, medium, and large companies, civil society, and governments worldwide stop pushing for particular interests and start collaborating honestly, then there is hope,” declared Nito Anello, co-founder of Zafrán.

Zafrán is one of the many companies aiming to transform the agri-food system to reverse the environmental and cultural crisis. It was born with the purpose of improving the world through foods that nourish people, regenerate the Earth, and generate inclusive work. In its quest, it met Entrepreneurs by Nature, from the Rewilding Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting the Restorative Economy in El Impenetrable, in the Chaco, the second green lung of South America.

Thanks to this alliance, for two years now, Zafrán has reformulated its recipes to include carob flour in some bars and cookies. Every year, when November arrives, the creole communities living around the national park collect the pods that fall from the carob tree.

In addition to preparing traditional recipes, they now sell part of their production, generating an extra income for households. This practice revalues local culture, rescues an ancestral food that is rich and nutritious, promotes rootedness, and helps maintain the forest standing with its wildlife against the bulldozer culture. This is just one example that it is possible to produce food without encroaching on life.