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 islands like Fiji.
"In the Pacific, we have our unique struggles but we also want to be here and show our peoples here in the Amazon, Indigenous peoples, that we can fight," a Fijian tribal leader, 37-year-old Alisi Rabukawaqa, told AFP in Brasilia.
In South America, meanwhile, a record drought last year laid the conditions for a particularly severe wildfire season.
In Brazil alone, fires wiped out nearly 18 million hectares of Amazon rainforest, according to the MapBiomas monitoring platform.
"For me it's important that Indigenous chiefs are invited to COP30... because leaders living in the villages are the ones who know the huge difficulties presented by the climate issue," said Sinesio Trovao, head of the Brazilian Indigenous Betania Mecurane community.
- 'We are the answer' -
Brazil has announced the creation of a Circle of Indigenous Leadership at COP30 to ensure that Indigenous people are given a hearing.
But Indigenous communities want to make sure their involvement is more than just show.
"We want to see how this can be done, tangibly," Rabukawaqa said.
The week-long rally in Brasilia, convened under the slogan "We are the answer," will include marches on government buildings.
On Tuesday, Congress will hold a special session on Indigenous rights.
By holding COP30 in the Brazilian Amazon, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aims to highlight the existential threat to the world's biggest rainforest.
On a visit to the Amazon last week he praised the "important role" played by Indigenous communities in the fight against climate change.
While pledging to end illegal Amazon deforestation, the leftist president has come under fire from climate activists for pushing a major offshore oil exploration project near the mouth of the Amazon River.
German climate activist faces expulsion from Austria after ban
Vienna (AFP) April 7, 2025 -
Austria has banned a German climate activist for two years, she said on Monday, adding she would fight the decision, which could see her expelled from the Alpine EU member.
Anja Windl, who has been living in Austria for seven years, became known for her protests against climate change, including glueing herself on streets to stop traffic with the Last Generation group.
In a decision Windl received last week, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum issued the two-year ban, giving her one month to leave the country.
The ban was issued after the German activist was found to pose a "danger for the public order and security", according to the decision seen by AFP.
"This is highly problematic from a democratic perspective," Windl, a 28-year-old psychology student, told AFP, adding she would appeal the ban.
"We are moving toward civilisational collapse, and instead of holding those responsible accountable, it is those who have peacefully advocated for the preservation of our livelihoods" who are targeted, she said.
Her lawyer, Ralf Niederhammer, said he did not know of any other political activist being banned from Austria. Windl faces no criminal charges, he added.
The interior ministry declined to comment on Windl's case but said that a "very precise and objective examination of the relevant facts" takes place before such bans are issued.
Last Generation Austria said last year they were ending their protests as they no longer saw "any prospect of success".
The group regularly made headlines since 2022 blocking streets and pouring black liquid over a screen protecting Gustav Klimt's masterpiece "Death And Life" in Vienna's Leopold Museum.
Among their demands, they had called for climate protection to be enshrined as a fundamental right in the Austrian constitution.
Last month, German prosecutors said they had charged five former members of Last Generation with offences including "forming a criminal organisation".
Dozens of group members have previously faced criminal charges for offences such as damage to property and trespassing.
Some have been convicted and fined, with a handful also given jail sentences of several months.
The movement announced in February that it was reorganising itself into two new groups focusing on different climate and environment-related issues -- "Neue Generation" (New Generation) and "Widerstandskollektiv" (Resistance Collective).
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