Sara Leal*
Launched today (14) at COP30, the guiding document “Climate Extremes: The Social Tipping Points in the Amazon” brings together policy recommendations to tackle the effects of climate change on the biome and its impacts on people’s lives.
The policy brief, produced by IPAM (Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia), seeks to be a framework for revealing, understanding and responding to the social tipping points in the Amazon, especially those deepened by climate change, in order to promote the protection of territories, forests and people through fair adaptation and climate resilience.
During the launch, at the Amazônia Hub pavilion, experts, indigenous leaders and representatives of the Brazilian government warned that the Amazon faces not only ecological risks of collapse, but also social points of no return already underway, caused by the combination of climate change, historical inequalities and the absence of effective public policies in vulnerable territories.
The Amazon is already experiencing a social tipping point
The main author of the policy brief, Patricia Pinho, Deputy Director of Research at IPAM, presented the preliminary results, the fruit of participatory workshops with people living in the Amazon rainforest.
“In many communities, climate change is already disrupting social stability even before the ecosystem collapses,” she said. Among the impacts reported by leaders are forced displacement, disease, food insecurity, violence, cultural loss and collective anxiety caused by the repetition of extreme events.
The study points out that 65% of the region’s indigenous population has been affected by compound climate disasters in the last two decades. At the same time, local practices led by women, youth and community organizations – such as participatory monitoring and bioeconomy – are already working as seeds of positive transformation, which can be scaled up with adequate support.
The urgency of those who live in the territory
Indigenous leader Francisco Piá, coordinator of Opirj (Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Juruá River), described how communities face accelerated transformations in the forest on a daily basis: sudden droughts and floods, the disappearance of species, increased incidence of fires and water insecurity.
“Our science exists, we know how to adapt. But without minimum conditions, we run real risks,” he said. He pointed out that environmental and adaptation policies are slow to reach the communities, while pressures such as illegal roads and fires are intensifying around indigenous lands.
Adaptation policies and climate justice
Representing the federal government, Inamara Melo, from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, stressed that Brazil has put climate adaptation back on the agenda as a strategic priority. The new National Adaptation Plan arrives at COP30 with 800 measures, 300 targets and the participation of 25 ministries, guided by the principle of climate justice.
“Adaptation is development. We are structuring an integrated national response, which needs to dialog with states, municipalities and those living on the front line of the climate crisis,” he said. The Adapta Cidades program already supports 581 municipalities and should reach 2,000 by 2031.
*IPAM communications coordinator