'Civil society is never given enough input into Cops'

The residents of Belem's favelas tell Nick Ferris of the daily climate challenges they are facing and explain why they are sceptical that Cop30 will help repair their damaged city

- Nick Ferris

For all the talk of Cop30 - the international UN climate conference - being in the Amazon, the reality for most of the 1.4 million people living in the Brazilian city of Belem is a far cry from the lush, green tropical forests that most people would imagine.

The last census from 2022 found that 57 per cent of the population, some 745,000 people, live in so-called baixadas: the local name for Belem’s informal favela areas, which are scattered throughout the city. The term is derived from the Portuguese word for “lowered”, and refers to the fact that these areas lie on the low-lying floodplain of the mighty Guamá River, which reaches the city after flowing hundreds of kilometres through the rainforest.

Official histories may note that Belem was founded by the Portuguese in 1616, but there was in fact a large indigenous settlement built by the Tupinambá long before that. Today, something of that legacy lives on in the large numbers of baixada dwellers of indigenous and Afro-Brazilian descent, who continue to feel a spiritual connection to the rivers.

“Where there is river, there is life, and there are people and culture,” says Guido, a resident of Jurunas, one of the largest favela areas in all of Brazil.

Climate impacts, environmental racism

But with 40 per cent of Belem’s city limits lying below sea level, and coastal erosion and extreme weather growing threats, the life-giving river is also a growing threat to communities. The situation is made worse by overcrowding, with the population increasing from just 250,000 in 1950.