This page highlights Brighter Green’s agenda and work related to COP30 in Belem, Brazil, from two of our initiatives, Documentation and Narrative and Animals, Climate, and Biodiversity.
Events at COP30
Building a Sustainable, Equitable, and Gender-Just Agrifood System Through Just Transition. Wednesday November 12: 11:30 am–1:00 pm. Blue Zone, Side Event Room 9, Hangar Convention and Exhibition Center, Belem. COP30 Official Side Event. Sponsored by the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, GROOTS, Founding member of Huairou Commission, UN Foundation, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Brighter Green (Isis Alvarez) presenting.
Just Transition in Agriculture & Food Systems. Wednesday November 12: 6:30–8:00 pm. Blue Zone, Side Event Room 9. Sponsored by Brighter Green, ActionAid, Action Against Hunger, Mighty Earth, and World Animal Protection.
Seeding Solidarity: Visions and Actions for Just, Sustainable Food Systems from Ground to Government Policy. Thursday November 13: 11:30 am–12:30 pm. Blue Zone, Food Roots and Routes Pavilion, Hangar Convenções & Feiras da Amazônia. Sponsored by Brighter Green with RepaSur Global.
Environmental Defenders in Yucatán Photo Exhibit. Thursday November 13 and Friday November 14, all day. The Peoples’ Summit, Peoples Tribunal against Eco-Genocide, Travessa Piedade 426, near Republic Square. Organized by Brighter Green.
Environmental Defenders Tribunal: The Case of Mega-Farms in Yucatán. Thursday November 13 to Friday November 14 (Times TBA). The Peoples’ Summit, Peoples Tribunal against Eco-Genocide, Travessa Piedade 426, near Republic Square. Brighter Green participating.
Socio-Environmental Impacts of Animal Agriculture in Latin America. Saturday November 15 (Times TBA). The Peoples’ Summit (Room TBA). Organized by Brighter Green.
A Just Transition Away from Industrial Animal Agriculture as a Pathway to 1.5C and Food Justice. Tuesday November 18, 10:15–11:15 am. Blue Zone, Food Roots and Routes Pavilion, Hangar Convenções & Feiras da Amazônia. Sponsored by Brighter Green, World Animal Protection, Center for Biological Diversity, Global Forest Coalition, and Aquatic Life Institute.
Initiatives for COP30
Investigative Reporting
As part of the Documentation and Narrative initiative, Brighter Green has established the Animals & Biodiversity Reporting Fund. Here is a selection of recent investigative journalism projects exploring the intersection of food systems, the climate crisis, and animal protection.
Slaughter-land by Patricio Eleisegui and Maricarmen Sordo describes the growth of pig mega-farms affecting Mayan communities and cenotes in Yucatán. Slaughter-land won the Yale Environment 360 Film Contest 2025. Read about and watch the film here. Read Patricio Eleisegui’s original reporting in the Guardian newspaper: Drugs, Hormones and Excrement: The Polluting Pig Mega-Farms Supplying Pork to the World
The Pork Mega Farms Eating Away at Life in Meta by Andrés Gómez (en español)
Carranza’s Dead Hand Behind Aliar-Fazenda and the Mennonites in Meta by Andrés Gómez (en español)
Barrulia: From Living on 58,000 Hectares to Inhabiting a Sports Centre by Camila Ramírez (en español)
Fire in the Pantanal Leaves Rescued Animals with Nowhere to Go (video)
Trapped: The Impact of Agribusiness on Brazilian Wildlife
La Extinción del Pueblo Nukak (video)
Deforestation and Livestock Farming: A Paramilitary Marriage in the Colombian Amazon
Other Relevant Writing
- Mia MacDonald: Why Serving Meat at a Climate Conference is a Problem
- Sophia Kevany (Vox): UN Numbers Say Meat Is Bad for the Climate: The Reality Is Worse
Rights of Nature, Rights of Animals
Within the Animals, Climate, and Biodiversity Initiative, Brighter Green launched a project the intersections of rights of Nature and rights of animals, and some of the philosophical and policy areas where there opportunities for both sets of advocates to work together.
Building on Patricio Eleisegui’s reporting and the film Slaughter-land (see above), the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN) has finalized a Resolution of the Assembly of Judges of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature on the impacts of the Maya Train and pig mega-farms in Yucatán on the Rights of Nature and of Indigenous communities. Brighter Green contributed research and documentation on the mega farms. The Resolution, addressed to the government of Mexico, includes this section on the rights of animals: “Violation of the right of non-human animals exploited in mega-farms to maintain their identity and integrity as different, self-regulating and interrelated beings; violation of the right to well-being, to life and not to be subjected to degrading treatment, or to be genetically altered.”
The Resolution was delivered by representatives of the Maya communities to the Interamerican Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. See video here. GARN’s press release on the Tribunal resolution—”Mayan activists file complaint against the Mexican state before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights over the Maya Train case”—is available below, en español.
Brighter Green and the More Than Human Life Project
Brighter Green has presented its ongoing paper, entitled “Justice at the Intersections” on the rights of Nature and the rights of animals at two More Than Human Life conferences (in New York City and in London). You can read the version presented below.