The entangled Indigenous, rural, and urban realities in Amazônia’s governance

Abstract

As Amazônia takes center stage at the UNFCCC COP30 climate summit in November 2025, attention has justifiably turned to the urgency of preventing tipping points in its forest-climate balance. Underlying this scenario is a crisis of environmental degradation, social inequalities, urban precarity, and violence; these intertwined realities, often hidden by simplistic imaginaries, are inseparable from the climate crises. The bold vision that previously established an ambitious system of territorial rights and environmental governance should now inspire strategies to confront the pressures that are eroding these advances. A new social contract must reckon with the complexity of interconnected crises driving the region toward tipping points. These strategies must safeguard Indigenous and traditional communities’ territories while extending environmental governance to urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. Building social capital for collective action among conflicting actors is the region's most significant challenge; polycentric governance approaches can bridge arrangements to ensure the basin’s health.