My last day at the apartment in the Nazare neighbourhood was the COP “rest day”- the venue is closed and we all rest- except the unions who hold a strategy day…..but not until 2pm!

So I had a local wander. First stop the Basilica, founded in the colonial era, and site of Brazil’s largest religious procession every year in October.

Next stop was the Parque Zoobotânico do Museu Goeldi, a botanical garden founded by Emilio Goeldi, to collect plant and animal specimens from the Amazon region, in order to study and preserve the forest and its biodiversity. Today it is the site of much research around the biodiversity of the forest that combines tech innovation, plant study, bacterial research, food trials and indigenous knowledge systems.

Since it was founded the park is truly established and has developed a rich biodiversity in its own right; a mini section of the rainforest; I have never seen a canopy this high. I had also never seen a hummingbird until today and am blown away by that! Probably the most amazing sight ever! You will have to take my word for it as it moved too fast!!

In the middle of the mini forest was a building dedicated to the history of indigenous people from all over Brazil.

This is how many groups there are. The park and museum was free to everyone today because of COP 30 and many indigenous families came with their children to show them the histories written down and the crafts on display.

It is not an accident or nature alone that causes the rainforest to be there; it is thanks to the guardianship of the Amazonian indigenous people.

Interesting discussions were had at the union strategy day around how to mobilise our members back home on climate change and a just transition for workers. Do they feel all this is of any relevance to them? And if not, why not?

Being in Brazil had been inspiring to everyone in our group. Here in Belem there are so many community groups that worked together to mobilise around the COP, the people’s summit and the big march yesterday. It was more vibrant and had more involvement of the wider populating than the last three held in authoritarian states (and Glasgow still had covid restrictions).

Chatting to one of them over dinner tonight, I was recalling that I learned about the Amazon basin and the rainforest in Geography back in the eighties. A year later I was taught about the greenhouse effect and global warming. I had never travelled to South America but have always remembered those lessons and have been concerned about environmental issues ever since.

How wonderful to spend my last COP at the place that inspired me all those years ago. The huge trees everywhere in Belem and the little sections of preserved forest and the massive and fast flowing river, the constantly screeching parakeets, the mangos, the acai, the sun and the rain, will all serve to remind delegates what they need to save.

Working, meeting and chatting with reps from all over the world gives us an understanding of how far apart our experiences are and yet how close. Abdirahman’s auntie lives in Haringey, London. In his words: “us Somalians love to travel”. He is young, starting out on his working life. I am nearly finishing mine. He is full of hope, growing in confidence and learning all the time. I am old enough to know we never stop learning.

This rainforest COP may have been the last one for me. But the forest is coming home with me, along with that tiny hummingbird. I’m just a beginner!