This statement was developed from the COP 30 Learning Series that RAOEN facilitated in four sessions of the Learning Series on the Climate Series and COP30 from May to October 2025. The Learning Series was an online gathering of indigenous youth across Asia to share their stories and reflections on land and waters, cultures, and the climate to celebrate actions with community and help participate and prepare for the COP 30 in Belém, Brazil. The Statement was finalized and agreed with the RAOEN delegates to COP30 on 27 October 2025.
From Ancestral Wisdom to Global Hope: A Call for Ecological Conversion and Intergenerational Solidarity
We, indigenous and youth participants from Asia and Oceania, speak with one heart and many voices. Our forests, rivers, and oceans – our biomes of life – are crying out. The Earth is warming, biodiversity is collapsing, and communities are losing their homes and food. Yet from these dangers, we also see the call to act, to transform, and to begin anew.
Ecological conversion is our shared path. It is metanoia – a deep change of heart, mind, and relationship. It calls us to live simply, walk humbly with creation, and act boldly for justice. Guided by both science and spirituality, we commit to care for all that is sacred: the forests that breathe, the waters that flow, and the seas that connect our islands and continents.
We are Indigenous Peoples – guardians of the lands, the rivers, the forests, and generations to come. In our communities, women, elders, and youth together sustain life. We learn from our ancestors and share wisdom with future generations. This is how our communities remain strong and our biomes remain alive. We desire to walk in synodality, listening to one another, and moving together as one body with many parts.
We stand with the Church’s message for COP30: to resist false solutions, reject the commodification of nature, and demand climate justice rooted in human dignity, equity, and care for our common home. We defend biodiversity as the web of life, and the ocean as the beating heart of our planet – vital for food, culture, and climate balance.
We are guardians of the forests, rivers, and seas; we are seeds of renewal. From our ancestral lands to the deep oceans, we rise together in faith, solidarity, and hope for the healing of our Common Home.
The Asia Oceania Indigenous youth message for COP30 is available in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Pinulangiyēn, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tagalog.
