Declaration of the Assembly of Climate Justice Networks of Latin America and the Caribbean in the face of the climate and environmental crisis, on the way to the Belém People’s Summit

COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Cali, Colombia, from October 21 to November 1, demonstrates that despite the significant participation of civil society and the creation of a subsidiary body under Article 8j for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, United Nations negotiations remain far from stopping biodiversity loss or addressing the climate crisis. The Conferences of the Parties and the decisions they adopt fail to bring about systemic change in response to the environmental crisis. Instead, they reinforce asymmetric and colonial power dynamics that block transformative solutions to confront climate and ecological collapse.

COP16 in Cali should have focused on implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (MMBKM) and mobilizing resources — $200 billion annually by 2030. However, certain Global North actors continue promoting market approaches, endorsed by the very corporations responsible for environmental destruction, which provide no real guarantee for ecosystem protection. Moreover, direct access to funding for community-led conservation initiatives by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, Afro-descendants, women, and youth is not assured. These and other omissions in human rights and gender-based governance approaches, already agreed upon within the framework, have steered COP
discussions toward a capital-centric logic filled with «innovative schemes» and false solutions that fail to address the root causes of the climate and biodiversity crises.

Only 44 out of 196 countries have submitted updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, highlighting the CBD framework’s shortcomings and lack of commitment. The voluntary nature of these plans offers no assurance of halting biodiversity loss. The lack of technical capacity, resource access disparities, and insufficient political will all hinder implementation, as also seen in the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Negotiation corridors in the blue zone displayed some diversity, yet the voices of the people barely made it beyond brief mentions or token proposals within negotiation texts.

Civil society participated in a green zone where over 900 activities were organized y various actors. While the Colombian government aimed to keep this area open and inclusive, however the limited time allocated to most events was insufficient to consolidate dialogues and proposals. Furthermore, there was no space for exchange or connection between the green and blue zones.

The slogan of the COP was “Peace with Nature.” However, in a context of conflict across several regions, it appears we overlook not only the ongoing genocide in Palestine but also the unprecedented array of techniques for exploiting Mother Earth for extractivism and anthropocentrism. Achieving “Peace with Nature” necessitates profound systemic change, including the transformation of global financial and economic structures, a just transition for historically oppressed peoples — especially ndigenous, local, Afro-descendant communities, women, and youth — and the recognition of Nature as a subject of rights, not merely as a resource for human use.

From Latin America in the Face of COP Failures:

We advocate for a territorial, agroecological, human rights-based approach with a gender perspective that strengthens governance mechanisms led by Indigenous, peasant, and Afro-descendant communities and urban social organizations. This approach must prioritize self-governance and self-determination, recognising these communities’ territorial rights to face the challenges of climate change and
biodiversity loss.

We demand respect for and promotion of the unique practices of each territory, preserving the traditional, cultural, and spiritual practices integral to their worldviews. These values are not only essential for cultural identity but also contribute to a sustainable and respectful relationship with biodiversity.
It is imperative to build the capacity of communities to manage their territories according to their own principles, empowering them to face climate change and biodiversity loss autonomously and in alignment with their governance systems. The creation, defense, and promotion of territories free from fossil fuels, mining, mega-dams, agribusiness, fires, deforestation, femicides, and ecocide will drive genuine transformation from the grassroots. Real solutions emerge from the tangible: from the recovery of transformative utopias and systemic alternatives built from below. Only by these means can we counter the false solutions that deepen capitalism’s contradictions, increase inequality, and exact a heavy toll on people, Nature, and the future.

We reject and resist false solutions promoted by corporate-led climate and biodiversity negotiations, both the so-called “nature-based solutions” and carbon removal, capture and storage techniques. These proposals are oriented towards the accumulation of profits, greenwashing, and not towards the preservation of life in all its forms.

We firmly oppose financing mechanisms that enrich elites at the expense of nature and to the detriment of communities most affected by climate change, particularly women and young people of all backgrounds. These financing schemes, masked as sustainable, only perpetuate inequalities and worsen the vulnerability of those already suffering the impacts of ecological collapse.

We condemn carbon and biodiversity markets, which provide a hypocritical, ineffective, and superficial response to the crisis. These markets, along with performance-based compensation mechanisms, offer no real solutions; instead, they uphold a system that shifts the burden to the most vulnerable and diverts attention from the transformative actions urgently needed, while giving major polluters a way
to «greenwash» their image.

We reject the advance of geoengineering — a set of technologies promoting the illusory, anthropocentric belief that we can control nature, driven by profit and greed. We adhere to the precautionary principle: we must not take risks that endanger the planet’s balance and the existence of all forms of life.

We call for deep, genuine change that respects ecological and climate justice, gender equality, equity, and human dignity. We denounce corporate capture of climate and biodiversity negotiations. It is inconceivable that the corporate sector’s influence in multilateralism and governments outweighs the voices of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, Afro-descendants, women, and youth. This corporate capture has exceeded all limits in the COPs, turning them into spaces where decisions are dictated by capital interests rather than reason or justice.

We denounce, during this COP under the theme “Peace with Nature,” all rights violations that multilateralism ignores. In particular, we condemn the genocide in Palestine and all forms of warfare, which exacerbate the urgency of prioritising life on our global agenda.

We also look ahead to COP30 on Climate Change in Belém do Pará, Brazil, where we aim to arrive with grassroots-driven processes that reflect the will of the people in their local and territorial struggles, finding solutions with, for, and by the people.

Peace with Nature is only possible through systemic change.