From 24 to 29 April 2026, the coastal city of Santa Marta hosted the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, bringing together representatives from nearly 60 countries, alongside Indigenous leaders, scientists, civil society organizations, and frontline communities.
Alongside the official program, social movements and communities from across Latin America convened the Conference for Fossil Fuel-Free Territories (24–25 April). This parallel process brought together Indigenous peoples, rural communities, Afro-descendant organizations, and environmental defenders to articulate a shared regional position grounded in territorial justice.
The outcome was a Declaration from the Territories, presented at the Peoples’ Summit by GARN Director Natalia Greene. The declaration names and confronts the structural drivers of the crisis, including extractivism, fossil capitalism, and geopolitical competition over land and resources. It also highlights the daily reality of “silent wars” in affected territories, marked by pollution, displacement, and violence against defenders.
“Do not come to manage collapse or greenwash destruction with new green narratives.”
The Declaration marks a significant step forward for the Rights of Nature movement, as it explicitly calls for the recognition of the Amazon, oceans, páramos, and mountain ecosystems as subjects of rights, alongside the creation of protected zones free from new extractive expansion.
It also advances a critical political proposal: a shift toward a “multilateralism of peoples”, a governance model capable of representing not only states, but also Nature and the communities who depend on it.
Extract from the Declaration from the Territories:
“We ask ourselves: what is a just energy transition? Energy for what, and energy for whom? We affirm that financing sustaining extractivism must end, demanding accountability from banks and investors for the harms they generate and full reparation, including the restoration of affected ecosystems. It is necessary to build a multilateralism of peoples capable of representing the Rights of Nature and all beings who inhabit it. We recognize the Amazon, the seas, the páramos, the mountain ranges, and other territories as subjects of rights, proposing their consolidation as exclusion zones free from new forms of extractivism. We demand respect for the self-determination of peoples, their autonomy and territorial sovereignty, including the right to say no and to defend food and energy sovereignty. We must connect our struggles, strengthen our strategies, and make our collective dreams real.”
This collective momentum extended beyond formal spaces. Hundreds took to the streets of Santa Marta in a public march, uniting demands and building collective power from the ground up.
At the Nature & Care Dialogue, GARN Latin America facilitator Any Margarita Cabas shared regional efforts, while Youth Hub facilitator Clara Tomé highlighted a critical paradigm shift:
“We must stop seeing Nature for her economic value.”
From conference halls to territories to the streets, a common message emerged, that there is no just transition without justice, participation, and territorial sovereignty.
Rights of Nature Tribunal: Six Amazon Cases admitted towards XII FOSPA in Ecuador
On 26 April 2026, the International Rights of Nature Tribunal held a closed session to review fossil fuel-related cases from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The session was not public to protect judges and environmental defenders facing ongoing risks of violence and intimidation.
A public hearing is scheduled for August 2026 at the XII Pan-Amazon Social Forum (FOSPA) in Puyo–Yasuní National Park.
Women on the Frontlines of Transition
Women environmental defenders played a central role across all events in Santa Marta. During the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network forum, global women leaders highlighted strategies to halt fossil fuel expansion and advance a just transition grounded in care, rights, and community leadership.
As stated by Goldman Prize 2026 winner and Rights of Nature Tribunal judge Yuvelis Morales Blanco:
“We need energy justice, gender justice. Extractive projects arrive, massacre, kill, and leave.”
Similarly, Indigenous leader Luene Karipuna emphasized:
“Energy transition cannot happen without our bodies and our territories.”
Our visit to the Sierra Nevada
Beyond conference spaces, GARN and partners engaged directly with Indigenous authorities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, visiting a Kogui reserve to seek guidance and consent regarding future Tribunal processes. Community authorities emphasized the restoration of the “Black Line,” a sacred network connecting land and sea, as an act of healing after decades of violence linked to armed conflict and extractive pressures.
As one community authority shared:
“We do not do this for ourselves, but for all humanity. Defending sacred spaces is how we give life back.”
Rights of Nature in High-Level Dialogues
The Rights of Nature were also present within official spaces of negotiation.
Juan Carlos Monterrey, Special Representative for Climate Change of Panama, brought the voice of Nature into high-level discussions, emphasizing the need to embed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Nature within global transition frameworks.
Clara Tomé also contributed to high-level negotiations, positioning the Rights of Nature as a pathway beyond fossil fuel dependency.
At a Global Citizen high-level session, Casey Camp-Horinek, member of GARN’s Indigenous Council, called for Indigenous leadership to be centered in transition processes, warning against repeating extractive patterns under new frameworks.
Next stop: FOSPA 2026 and Amazonian Coordination
The next major milestone will take place from 16–22 August 2026 at the XII Foro Social Panamazónico in Ecuador. FOSPA is a biannual regional platform bringing together Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, social movements, and civil society from across the Amazon basin. It serves as a critical space for political articulation, collective reflection, and coordinated action in defense of life and territories.
Hosting the forum in Ecuador is both strategic and symbolic, as the Yasuní region has become a global emblem of the struggle to keep fossil fuels in the ground, driven by Indigenous leadership and civil society mobilization.
Much more than a COP… and what lies after?
From Santa Marta to Yasuní, a continental process is consolidating which seeks to end fossil fuel dependence and also transform the systems that made it possible.
The Santa Marta conference reflects a broader shift in global climate governance, where we went from abstract emissions targets toward concrete discussions on how to phase out fossil fuels, and who gets to define the terms of that transition.
For networks like GARN and allied movements, Santa Marta is not an endpoint but part of a larger trajectory, from COP30 in Belém, to Santa Marta, and onward to Amazonian and Pacific processes.
The question is no longer whether transition will happen—but when. As the conference closed, a shared sentiment remained: determination, urgency, and hope.
The path forward is complex. Ensuring that the phaseout of fossil fuels is binding, just, and equitable will require sustained pressure, coordination, and leadership from frontline communities.
There is no transition without justice.
And there is no justice without the Rights of Nature.
