At the heart of the Amazon and on the eve of COP30, the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal held its third and final session in Belém, Brazil, under the title A New Pledge for Mother Nature. This closing event brought together the findings, judgments, and reflections of a process that began in New York (September 2024) and continued in Toronto (March 2025), which explored the end of the fossil fuel era, corporate and governmental accountability, and the consequences and impacts of mining around the world.

The Tribunal has spent the past decade building a powerful body of evidence, jurisprudence, and community around the recognition of Nature as a living entity with inherent rights, and it has woven together testimonies from Indigenous Peoples, communities, and ecosystems across continents through its sessions, standing as both a moral and legal voice for Mother Earth.

In Belém, Tribunal judges presented and signed a New Pledge for Mother Nature, which calls for a deep civilizational shift and offers a roadmap for governments, civil society, and international institutions gathered at COP30, denouncing the exponential expansion of fossil fuel extraction and large-scale mining, often disguised as “green transitions”, as direct threats to the planet’s ecological balance and to the guardians of Mother Earth.

Among its key demands, the Pledge urges:

• Recognition of the Rights of Nature and of the Amazon as a subject of rights, alongside the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
• An indefinite moratorium on fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon, and support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty as a companion to the Paris Agreement.
• Climate justice through the immediate phaseout of fossil fuels and rejection of market-based mechanisms that commodify Nature under the guise of “ecosystem services” or “green transitions.”
• Protection of Earth Defenders, particularly in Latin America, the most dangerous region for environmental defenders, and full implementation of the Escazú Agreement.
• Reparations and systemic change addressing the root causes of ecological destruction, including capitalism, patriarchy, racism, and anthropocentrism.

As stated in the Pledge, “We are all part of the Earth, an indivisible and living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny but with different existential conditions and rights.”

The Tribunal’s closing declaration in Belém is a renewed commitment, a pledge to continue advancing the Rights of Nature as a foundation for peace, justice, and the survival of all beings, and serves as a contribution to the Peoples’ Summit and the UNFCCC COP30, calling upon the international community to embrace a new paradigm rooted in reciprocity, care, and the restoration of ecological balance.

Watch all the Tribunal interventions here.

🔗 Read the full New Pledge for Mother Nature here.