People appropriate the Amazon and don’t help, says Fafá de Belém

Fafá de Belém, 68, has emerged as a powerful voice for environmental activism. Increasingly involved in the fight to raise awareness of climate change, the singer celebrates her city as the host of COP 30, in 2025.

For her, the event is an opportunity for the Amazonian people to make themselves seen and heard. However, there is something that worries her: the appropriation of speeches around the topic without the real needs of the people of the region being heard.

“We live in a gigantic region, talked about and propagated, but where poverty is rampant. Belém has one of the worst basic sanitation rates in Brazil, only 2% of the city’s population has sewage treatment”, highlights Fafá. “Will they look at it?”

“We can put a big drum for them to look at. Not just the leaders, but those who are there to watch the COP and take ownership of the Amazon without knowing what they are talking about, without any type of real help for our people”, he continues. “Our demands are fundamental to the balance of the planet.”

The singer spoke to F5 on the occasion of the launch of her Forum and Varanda de Nazaré 2025, a kind of box with guests of the singer for the Círio de Nazaré, in October of next year. Celebrities such as Thiago Oliveira, Didi Wagner and influencer Jornanna Maia are some of the names on Fafá’s guest list.

The Círio de Nazaré, one of the largest religious events in the world, is another beacon that brings visibility to the capital of Pará and turns the world’s gaze to the Amazon region.

IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE

The main fight Fafá is currently involved in is climate change awareness. “If everyone doesn’t become aware, in five years it will be irreversible”, he warns.

“The responsibility lies with all of us, with those who are born in the Amazon but also with those who are not born there and who keep talking about the Amazon without understanding it”, he adds.

In a recent interview with the No Tom podcast, Fafá criticized the floating stage that will be used by Rock in Rio during COP 30.

“I have nothing against Rock in Rio. [Mas] This stage, which is Vitória Régia, was used on a lake in Amazonas. Obviously it was anchored, in front of Belém, in a branch of the Amazon River, where the current is gigantic, where the sea has no hair and the wind has no woman. I look at it and find it very pretentious, when we have it there [em Belém] We have strength, we have our squares, our bandstands. So I preferred to withdraw.”

COP 30 in Belém will be the opportunity not only to look at these demands, but to draw attention to the culture and art of the region, adds the singer.

“We have a gigantic opportunity to be present, we, Amazonian peoples, original peoples, quilombolas, indigenous people, men and women from the forest, men and women from cities, from the countryside, riverside dwellers, intellectuals, teachers, cultural makers, musicians, artists” , enumerates. “We have to defend our culture, our way of being and have them look at us to find out what our real needs are.”