More than 5,000 people from 62 countries will navigate the rivers surrounding the COP30 host city in a major political action on the waters. One of the boats will carry leaders such as Raoni as part of the “Caravan of the Response.”
Belém, Pará, Brazil — This Wednesday, November 12, starting at 9:00 a.m., more than 200 boats carrying approximately 5,000 people will gather in Guajará Bay, in front of the capital of Pará, in one of the most symbolic moments of the People’s Summit, a parallel event to COP30.
The People’s Summit River Flotilla will bring together caravans that departed from other municipalities, states, and countries to denounce false climate solutions and to announce that the answer to a sustainable world lies with the peoples of the waters, the forests, and the urban peripheries, who resist through collective, agroecological, and ancestral practices.
The flotilla will depart from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), located in the Guamá district and home to the People’s Summit, and will travel along the Guamá River, which then becomes the Guajará River, until reaching Vila da Barca, a stilt-house community that constitutes a social enclave, as part of its homes lack basic sanitation. The community has resisted for decades against real estate speculation and the neglect of public authorities.
In the city’s preparation for COP30, Vila da Barca was slated to receive a sewage treatment facility serving a nearby middle-class neighborhood that has been recently beautified to enhance the city’s tourist image. As a result, the area has become a clear example of the contradictions of conferences that make misguided decisions while ignoring those most affected by extreme climate events.
These contradictions will be exposed through banners and signs displayed on large and small vessels along a 4.5-nautical-mile route. The flotilla is expected to depart from four ports near UFPA and sail for approximately two hours, a duration that takes tidal conditions into account.
“We are aligned, and we believe it will be historic,” said Iury Paulino, a member of the People’s Summit Political Committee and coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB). River damming is among the corporate actions and infrastructures denounced for causing impacts that increasingly contribute to the climate crisis, including changes in river courses, sedimentation, species extinction, flooding of areas that were once forest, and the displacement of communities that safeguard preservation practices.
These impacts are also faced by fishing communities that maintain a longstanding cultural relationship with the sea. Riverine and fishing peoples around the world are directly affected by the contamination of rivers and coastal areas caused by mining activities and chemical spills. In Brazil, the collapse of Vale’s dams in Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019) caused hundreds of deaths, destroyed communities, and inflicted severe environmental damage, contaminating rivers and ecosystems. In Ecuador, the rupture of the SOTE oil pipeline, operated by a state-owned company, spilled more than 25,000 barrels of crude oil into the Esmeraldas River in March 2025, contaminating drinking water, rivers, and coastal communities.
For this reason, movements and organizations of the People’s Summit are uniting to amplify, over the waters, a collective outcry against COP decisions that perpetuate this model of territorial exploitation, and against corporations that exert strong influence in conference decision-making spaces to prevent the adoption of more ambitious targets for reducing natural resource extraction, as well as for mitigation and damage repair, within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) established under the Paris Agreement.
People’s Summit at COP30 – Program Overview
📍 November 12 (Wednesday) — The morning will be marked by the river flotilla on the Guamá River, as boats from various riverine communities arrive in Belém and join national and international delegations, with the participation of approximately 150 vessels. From 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., delegations will be formally welcomed on the main stage, followed by a large public gathering for the official opening of the People’s Summit from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The first day will conclude with a major cultural concert on the main popular stage.
📍 November 13 (Thursday) — Thematic activities organized around the event’s convergence axes will begin. Workshops, dialogue circles, plenaries, and exchanges of experience will be guided by territorial knowledge, strengthening the connection between climate struggle and social justice. This initial phase aims to identify the main challenges faced by communities and to map solutions already being built in the territories. From 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., global plenaries will be held on Axes 1, 2, and 3: Sovereignty, Reparations, and Transition. The Children’s Summit and the People’s Fair will also take place. In the afternoon, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Convergence Axis Linkage activities will be held, followed in the evening, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., by cultural activities, briefings on negotiations, and mobilizations.
📍 November 14 (Friday) — The third day will focus on consolidating the proposals that emerged in previous activities. This is the moment of political synthesis, when inputs raised by movements are organized into contributions that will form the final declaration. Working groups and thematic assemblies will shape the demands and priorities to be presented to the world. From 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., plenaries will address Axis 4 — Internationalism, Axis 5 — Cities, and Axis 6 — Women, with cultural interventions throughout the sessions and the Children’s Summit. In the afternoon, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., there will be Convergence Axis Linkage activities, the Assembly of Social Movements, and the seminar “Health and Climate.” From 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., the final plenary will present the syntheses of the axes and consolidate the People’s Declaration.
📍 November 15 (Saturday) — A large popular march will take place, a public and international action bringing together Indigenous peoples, quilombola communities, youth, urban and rural workers, feminist organizations, environmental collectives, trade unions, and international networks. The march expresses the collective voice of the People’s Summit and represents its most visible moment of popular mobilization, affirming that climate justice is inseparable from the defense of life and territories. The Unified March will run from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., with an expected turnout of more than 20,000 people. It will be followed by a press conference with spokespersons to present and clarify the Summit’s main debates.
📍 November 16 (Sunday) — The program will conclude with the reading and presentation of the final declaration built throughout the Summit. The document will synthesize the proposals debated across the axes, reaffirm commitments, and point to pathways for a just transition based on peoples’ sovereignty, territorial protection, and the rejection of false corporate solutions. From 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., a public hearing will be held with the COP presidency to present the People’s Summit political agenda, followed by the closing act. In the afternoon, at 2:00 p.m., a People’s Banquet will take place in Republic Square.
More than a series of activities, the People’s Summit program reflects a different way of thinking about climate action: bottom-up, rooted in popular leadership and territorial realities. Each day of the program represents a living stage of collective construction and demonstrates that confronting the climate crisis necessarily depends on strengthening the communities that already protect and regenerate biomes. The People’s Summit calls on society to participate not as spectators, but as active subjects in building another model for the future.
Photo: Vera Lima / Ag. Eficaz