The trees in Belem are iconic and it’s not hard to remember this was rainforest. Some of the trunks look like they’ve stood since the beginning of time.

The mangos line every street as well as the riverfront. There are bamboo groves.

There is even a lone tree growing inside the COP; I assume this was left during the building as a comment on logging and development?

The Amazonian peoples, of course, are a forest people and will fiercely defend their lands against loggers and developers, and rightly so. They are one of the last bastions defending nature. Dramatically this was seen last night when around 100 Amazonian indigenous people entered the COP without passes and forced their way in to bring attention to their demands.

By this morning, 100s of people from indigenous and local groups (including CUT, the Brazilian trade union), joined a flotilla which sailed along the Guama River (part of the Amazon delta that Belem is situated in), arriving proudly on mass at the “People’s Summit”at the Federal University of Para. This summit runs alongside the COP (and also as a reaction to it) as a way of amplifying marginalised voices and highlighting the concerns of ordinary and local people. A minibus was booked and 15 of us made our way down there and it was fantastic!

Back at the COP later, there was important lobbying and negotiation to do with our government representatives around the Just Transition Work programme. I also represented education workers at a meeting around empowering women and youth through green skills; our young Somalian trade unionist was on the panel and spoke well.

Back at the Nazare neighbourhood tonight we had a wander through the Basilica gardens, lit up again, next to the fairground, and finished the day witnessing a religious procession for COP 30, with the famous Nazare virgin Mary carried aloft through the streets, which crowds turned out to support.

The Amazon really is beautiful- the trees, the river and the spirit of the people. All worth looking after. People and planet before profit!