Pulitzer Center Centers Indigenous Rights at COP30
COP30 (the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference) marked a turning point: a global climate summit where Indigenous and community voices were present and leading. The Pulitzer Center recognizes that Indigenous people have long pushed for more involvement in the summits. This year, COP was held in the Amazon rainforest to encourage decisionmakers to listen to these groups, and for the first time in multiple years, the conference was held in a democracy where public protests and a strong civil society are permitted.
As conversations around climate change deepen, it is increasingly clear that we need more than modern technologies. The knowledge that has sustained Indigenous peoples for generations—rooted in territory, community, and reciprocity—remains essential to shaping a just climate future.
Throughout the conference, the Pulitzer Center placed Indigenous solutions and experiences at the forefront. Our grantees’ reporting from around the world underscores both the challenges these communities face and the resilience they continue to demonstrate on the front lines of the climate crisis.
We amplified these realities through film, dialogue, and collaborative storytelling. The screening of Amazônia, a Nova Minamata, by Brazilian director Jorge Bodanzky, brought urgent attention to the impacts of mining on community rights and health. Testimonies, including a powerful account by Chico, a community representative from Minas Gerais, Brazil, highlighted the contradictions of “progress” imposed on communities living with contamination and uncertainty. Journalists and experts such as Pulitzer Center RIN Fellow Isabel Harari and activist Charles Trocate examined the expanding pressures of critical mineral extraction and challenged narratives of “clean transitions” that obscure territorial dispossession.
Beyond the formal venues, the Pulitzer Center partnered with Mídia NINJA to launch the Journalism and Future Narratives exhibition at Casa Ninja. Featuring work from Pulitzer Center grantees and visual storytellers, the exhibition celebrated climate solutions driven by Indigenous and local communities. During the opening night discussion, speakers emphasized the long-term power of journalism: its ability to document the present, connect diverse networks, and inspire new futures. Conversations led by Pulitzer Center staff members Flora Pereira, Gustavo Faleiros, and Bruna Wagner, along with journalists Tayguara Ribeiro and Raissa Galvao, reinforced the need for stories that center resilience and coexistence.
The panel “Communication and Indigenous Rights in the Climate Agenda,” at Casa Maraka, brought journalists, researchers, and Indigenous communicators together to discuss how the media can strengthen the protection of Indigenous rights. The discussion—featuring Isabel Harari (Repórter Brasil), Vitor Hugo Brandalise (Rádio Novelo), Erisvan Guajajara (Mídia Indígena), Dríade Aguiar (Mídia NINJA), Maria Rosa Darrigo (Pulitzer Center), and Bruno Malheiro (UFPA)—contributed to a rich and plural dialogue focused on advancing Indigenous rights through communication, which reaffirmed a collective commitment: Climate justice requires that Indigenous peoples not only be heard, but shape the narratives and decisions that define our shared future.
Best,
This message appeared in the December 12, 2025, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.
