The 30th edition of the Conference of the Parties (COP30), the largest global United Nations forum on climate change, is being held this year in Belém do Pará, in northern Brazil — a region that encompasses a large portion of the Amazon biome and, at the same time, faces some of the most critical challenges in ensuring meaningful connectivity for local communities.
At COP30, the LocNet initiative aims to learn from local socio-environmental actors and movements how connectivity shapes their realities, and to support technological practices that strengthen their work. We take this opportunity to embark on a journey to identify how the structuring principles of community networks and those of socio-environmental justice align and reinforce each other.
In this context, we are initiating a series of activities to build bridges between the agendas of digital inclusion and environmental justice, grounded in the experiences of local communities. To do so, we invited Thiane Neves from the Perpetuar Institute and the Transfeminist Network of Digital Care, along with Juliana Albuquerque and Ray Baniwá, communicators from Rede Wauyri, to bring visibility to the connectivity agenda at COP30 and to share reflections and insights from this event, the Cúpula dos Povos, and other community spaces focused on environmental justice taking place in November 2025 in Belém do Pará.
We invite you to embark with us in this journey by means of this contents and reflections.
Reflections on the impacts of digital infrastructure and racism in traditional communities, by Thiane Neves-Barros
Read more on community-centred connectivity and environmental justice.