Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla
Colectivo Quipa
Country (ies): Amazon Basin and the Andes (Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil)
Scope: Regional | Global
Year: 2025
01
CONTEXT
COP30, held in Belém do Pará, was projected as a milestone for climate justice and Indigenous Peoples amidst a context of global political uncertainty and a lack of consensus on the phase-out of fossil fuels and solutions to tackle climate change.
In parallel, a structural gap persisted: Indigenous Peoples sustain a large part of the effective conservation in the Amazon, yet they face criminalization, exclusion from decision-making spaces, and barriers to accessing climate finance. Although Indigenous Peoples guarantee the integrity of the world's most important tropical forests, their vital contribution remains invisible.
The main objective of the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla was to territorialize climate governance, shifting the center of climate negotiations to the heart of the rainforest to ensure that environmental justice is built from the sovereignty of the peoples.
To achieve this purpose, three tactical axes were established:
- Decentralization of decision-making: Physically shifting the political debate to the territories, breaking the geographical gap between the spaces where laws are dictated and the territories where the climate crisis is lived.
- Legitimation of Indigenous spokespersonship: Consolidating Indigenous Peoples as political subjects with the capacity for direct advocacy on the global agenda.
- Link between territory and justice: Highlighting that there is no real climate solution without the full recognition and autonomous control of the territories by their ancestral protectors.
02
CHALLENGE
Prior to the campaign, the global narrative about the Amazon tended toward victimization and invisibility, portraying Indigenous Peoples as passive subjects rather than political actors. There was a dispersion between scientific findings, rights, and financing, with a predominantly neutral tone that made it difficult to build political power in favor of the territorial struggle. Furthermore, access to climate funds remained marked by intermediation, reinforcing the need to position direct financing as both a technical and political demand.
03
SOLUTION
Colmena Lab planned a pre-positioning strategy to cut through the saturation of COP30 and consolidate a common advocacy framework:
- Media intelligence and data storytelling: Mapping and interpreting the pulse of the conversation to identify windows of opportunity, data-driven narratives, and peak activation moments. Territorial testimonies, evidence, and data were transformed into a coherent and scalable political narrative designed to mobilize public opinion and influence high-level decision-makers.
- Narrative sovereignty and real-time production: Articulating a co-creation dynamic alongside the participants of the Amazon Flotilla, aiming to generate a real-time distribution flow of authentic content from the Amazon River. This highlighted the impacts of extractive industries and climate change, ensuring the narrative originated from the territory.
- Advocacy strategy and amplification in international media: Leading the impact and amplification in international media during the month leading up to COP30. The itinerary and stories of the Yaku Mama Amazon Flotilla were positioned from their origin at the Cayambe volcano glacier in Ecuador, through their journey across the Amazon basin, until their arrival in the city of Belém, coinciding with the start of climate negotiations at COP30.
- Channel design by objective: Structuring communication according to the audience: specific channels for negotiation and political advocacy, and others to showcase results through images and videos. The goal was for political pressure to be constantly fueled by high-quality technical assets (maps, photographs, graphics, videos, and data).
04
IMPACT
Repositioning results: The mobilization achieved a framing leap, shifting from "victims" to "political subjects," and elevating the territorial conversation to a global scale in the lead-up to COP30.
- 2.55 billion potential reads in global media.
- 11 million unique users participated in the digital mobilization.
- 308 press releases in 24 hours during the advocacy peak prior to COP30.
- Coverage in 65 countries and 17 languages (including Tier 1 media).
- 97.3% positive/neutral sentiment in the conversation, associated with the change in the narrative framework and the legitimacy of the message.
A cross-border advocacy strategy was driven, uniting territories, evidence, and strategic communication. This successfully scaled the climate justice demands of Indigenous Peoples onto the international public agenda heading into COP30.
