Five Key Takeaways from our Road to COP30 Webinar
Ahead of COP30 and a decisive Climate Week NYC, many of you joined Health In Harmony and our partners for an engaging and galvanizing Road to COP30 call.
Taking place on September 10, the event brought together members of the Health In Harmony global team with key voices of leadership to discuss how rainforest communities are driving urgent climate action in the lead-up to COP30 and Climate Week NYC.
The discussion highlighted advocacy strategies, community-led solutions, and the power of storytelling in shifting global climate agendas toward equity, regeneration, and source-based funding.
We’d like to thank our speakers for an illuminating conversation:
Belai Djandam, Indigenous Dayak Youth and HIH Advocacy Coordinator
Alcibiades Rodriguez, Co-founder of Ulu Films
Yurshell Rodríguez, Lead at the Training Department at If Not Us Then Who?
Edna Kaptoyo, Grantmaking and Partnerships Officer at Pawanka Fund
Sasha Matthews, Global Scale Manager at Health In Harmony and Co-Executive Director of SAMA-HIH in Brazil
In case you missed the briefing, you can watch it here, or read our five key takeaways below.
1. Rainforest guardians are essential leaders and rights holders
Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and local communities are not merely stakeholders but rights holders, knowledge holders, and the primary protectors of critical ecosystems. Their leadership and holistic, locally-rooted solutions are fundamental to planetary health and crucial for resolving interconnected global crises like climate change, biodiversity loss, and public health.
2. The urgent need for direct and equitable climate finance
Despite safeguarding Earth’s most critical ecosystems, less than 1% of international climate finance directly reaches Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and local communities in tropical countries. Indigenous-led funds, such as Pawanka Fund, are partnering with other advocates to call for a systemic reform of UNFCCC and multilateral mechanisms to ensure direct and equitable access to climate finance. The leadership and stewardship of rainforest guardians should not only be recognized, but fully resourced.
3. Advocating for justice and accountability at COP30
For SAMA Health In Harmony (SAMA-HIH), COP30 in Brazil presents a significant opportunity to demand more just decision-making and stronger, sustained community voices. Brazil is a "living, breathing political and cultural space" where intersecting crises and Indigenous resistance converge, reflecting the global climate struggle. Therefore, the banner of Mutirao should be interpreted not only as a call for partnership, but a call for justice in dismantling the dominant extractive worldviews and accountability in continuing the fight beyond COP30.
4. The transformative power of community-led storytelling and visibility
Authentic, community-led, and Indigenous storytelling is crucial for reclaiming narratives, defending territories, and ensuring Indigenous solutions and struggles are heard and understood. The Panama Storytelling Campaign – a forthcoming collaboration between If Not Us Then Who, Health In Harmony, and Ulu Films – seeks to elevate Indigenous voices to break stereotypes and generate awareness, empathy, and social transformation. Visibility and direct representation of Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples and local communities in global decision-making spaces, such as COP30, are vital for influencing negotiations and delivering just, community-rooted outcomes.
5. Hope is a collective practice
The conversation closed with each speaker reflecting on what hope looks like for them. As we head into this advocacy season, we are reminded that hope drives this movement. As well as truth-telling, community-led action, and active engagement. Hope is reclamation, and as Edna Kaptoyo from Pawanka Fund said: hope is all we have.