Counter narratives from collectives in Belém and Berlin for the climate conference (COP30) in the Amazon
Representatives of collectives from Belém do Pará (Brazil) and Berlin (Germany) come together to share their knowledges and experiences in the struggle for climate and environmental justice. Through images, videos, visual records, and other forms of storytelling, they aim to strengthen their collective practices in communication, art, journalism, and critical research. Rooted in decolonial, feminist, and collaborative methodologies, these exchanges are part of their preparation for the COP30 – the UN Climate Change Conference that will take place in the Brazilian Amazon, in the city of Belém in November 2025. Together, they will create cultural tools that challenge dominant narratives.
The project is conceptualized and coordinated by the visual artist Barbara Marcel and transmedia journalist Camila Nobrega, both from Brazil and based between Brazil and Germany. Territories of Knowledge is developed as a co-collaboration with Spore Initiative. It is rooted in a research travel to Belém do Pará in 2024 and ongoing exchanges with various local groups and initiatives engaging in eco-social justice. The 2025 edition of the project emerges from a close dialogue netween groups* in Belém and in Berlin, Spore Initiative, and the collaborators Marcel and Nobrega, who continue to facilitate the project.
The participant collectives and their representatives are: Waleska Queiroz (COP das Baixadas – Belém, Pará, Brazil), Isabelle Maciel (Tapajós de Fato – Santarém, Pará, Brazil), Aline Silva (MST, the Brazilian Landless Movement – Parauapebas, Pará, Brazil); Annabelle Detmeter (Debt for Climate, Berlin – Germany), Ruby Russel (Unbias the News, Berlin, Germany), and Nicky Böhm (Refuge Worldwide Radio, Berlin, Germany).
Full text originally published at Spore
TERRITORIES OF KNOWLEDGES creates a situated space for exchange and mutual learning. It brings together activist communicators, documentarists, and artists engaged in collective practices in Belém (Brazil) and Berlin (Germany). All participants are involved in social and environmental justice movements in different ways. Together, they will develop tools and processes to critically examine hegemonic discourse and imagery while also producing and circulating diverse narratives from marginalized voices.
The process draws on decolonial pedagogies, feminist methodologies, and community-based media practices. The discussions will center on the production of counter-narratives, grassroots communication, audiovisual materials and journalism. Multilingual exchange and translation will be central to the project, ensuring that materials and processes are accessible across language barriers. Ethical protocols will be co-developed with participating groups to ensure consent, representation, and non-extractivism.
The project aims to build a bridge between Belém—where the United Nations Climate Conference (COP 30) will take place in November 2025—and Berlin, which hosted the first COP (COP-1) in 1995. It combines collective cultural and artistic practices, transmedia investigative journalism, and activist strategies to critically engage with colonial and developmentalists narratives about the Brazilian Amazon as well as discourses on climate change on a global scale.
Participants represent diverse backgrounds across activism, communication, and artistic fields. Through collective learning and exchange, they will seek to challenge dominant perspectives on the Amazon and the historical roles of the COP conferences. Key points of departure for the discussions will include topics such as green capitalism and the financialization of nature. The project also highlights the structural barriers that often prevent local activists and communities—who protect the Amazon’s biocultural diversity— from having equal access to environmental debates in the Global North.
Therefore, the outcomes of the project will be shared through public events in Belém and Berlin, as well as through grassroots networks, alternative media platforms, and community spaces, prioritizing accessibility and impact over visibility. The project Territories of Knowledges will be formed by the collaboration of representativesgroups with a long term commitment to social, territorial and ecological justice. The participating groups are COP das Baixadas, Tapajós de Fato, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Refuge Worldwide Radio, Unbias the News, and Debt for Climate. The groups were invited as part of a relational process based on continuous exchange and local recommendations.
