BELEM: Dozens of Indigenous protesters blocked the front of the COP30 summit venue in Brazil on Friday morning, staging a sit-in that forced delegates to use a side entrance to resume their negotiations on tackling climate change.

Security guards stepped up checks during the peaceful protest, and delegates formed long lines waiting to enter the sprawling compound, which is built on the site of an old airport in the Amazon city of Belem.

The venue is hosting the annual UN climate conference where delegates from 195 governments are seeking to secure progress on halting the rise in global temperatures that threatens delicate and essential ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest.

The protesters are demanding that the Brazilian government halt development projects in the Amazon, including mining, logging, oil drilling and the building of a new railway for transporting mining and agricultural products.

“President Lula, we are here in front of COP because we want you to listen to us. We refuse to be sacrificed for agribusiness,” read a statement from the Munduruku Indigenous group that carried out the protest.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has highlighted Indigenous communities as key players in this year’s COP30 negotiations.

The Munduruku territory covers nearly 24,000 square km (9,000 square miles), about the size of the US state of New Hampshire, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil.

“We are the ones who protect the climate, and the Amazon cannot continue to be destroyed to enrich big companies,” the Munduruku statement added.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2025