Buen Vivir and Climate Justice: Only with the Participation of Children and Adolescents!
Belém – Pará – Brazil
We are children and adolescents from many places in Pará, the Amazon, and other parts of Brazil and the world. We come from hot places, crowded neighborhoods, islands, riverine communities, Indigenous and quilombola territories, big cities, simple homes, and schools that do not always have shade or ventilation.
We came together at the Children’s Summit to talk about an issue that affects our lives every day: the CLIMATE.
We decided to write this CHARTER because we want the world to listen to our voice and to what we feel in our bodies and in our daily lives.
The heat is very strong. Really strong. There are days when we feel headaches, dizziness, and like we might faint.
Some children cannot play in the sun, study in hot classrooms, or walk on dusty streets. There are schools without trees to provide shade. There are neighborhoods where the wind barely passes.
WE FEEL SAD WHEN WE SEE:
Trees falling
Smoke from wildfires
Rivers full of trash
Animals suffering
The forest shrinking
People getting sick because of heat and pollution.
ALL OF THIS AFFECTS US!
It affects us so much that some of us drew what we feel:
big colorful trees, children playing under the sun, blue rivers, birds flying, houses surrounded by plants, forests on fire, signs saying “TAKE CARE OF NATURE.”
These drawings are a way to say what our mouths cannot always say.
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT THE CLIMATE?
We care because NATURE is our home and much more… We are nature, the planet is nature. Nature is everything!
We are very young and we want to have a BEAUTIFUL FUTURE to live in, but we also want it NOW!
We want to keep studying, playing soccer, playing, planting, swimming, and going to the places we love. We want animals and forests to keep existing!
AND WE SAY:
The death of the FOREST is the end of our lives
Animals must not be SHOT AND KILLED
Heat affects people’s HEALTH
Without nature there is no HUMANITY
We breathe the AIR of the forests and rivers
Climate change makes CHILDREN SICK
We must care for and protect the AMAZON
We want to PLANT more trees
We CARE because we live here
WE ALL AGREE ON ONE THING:
We do not want to grow up in a destroyed world!
We are not asking—we are claiming our rights.
We want you to care for the planet as if it were a child: alive and in need of attention!
HERE ARE OUR PROPOSALS:
We must plant more trees, many trees, everywhere
Stop deforestation and wildfires
Have proper places to dispose of waste
Clean rivers and seas and protect fish
Care for animals that are losing their homes
Teach environmental education in schools, with practical activities and well-prepared teachers
Make the environment part of health policy
Listen to the communities that live in the forest
Ensure real participation of children and adolescents in political decisions
Adults must do their part, because we are doing ours.
Adults must listen to children — BECAUSE THEY TELL US TO SHUT UP WHEN WE TRY TO SPEAK.
WHY DID WE BUILD THIS CHARTER?
Because we believe our voice needs to reach the whole world.
COP30 is big, and so is our hope!
We do not have power, money, or important positions,
But we have the FUTURE AND THE PRESENT!
WE DEMAND:
Help to protect the Amazon
Care for the Earth
So that the next CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS are not afraid of heat, smoke, lack of water, or the extinction of animals
So that they can draw living forests — not forests that are dying.
We are many: children and adolescents from zero to 17 years old.
Each with a way of being, a drawing, a voice, a dream.
But all with the same IDEAL!
Take care of our planet now. We want to stay alive! To grow up in a beautiful world, a world that can still breathe. With hope and without fear!
Children and Adolescents of the Children’s Summit
Belém, November 15, 2025
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