From protests against oil and gas in the Black Sea, to documenting drought impacts in Germany. Here are a few of our favourite images from Greenpeace work around the world this week.

Bulgaria – Greenpeace activists from five countries painted “NO GAS + OIL” on the side of the abandoned tanker “Kairos”, part of Russia’s shadow fleet, anchored off the coast of Burgas, Bulgaria. The activity protested against the toxic dependence on oil and gas, which funds wars, fuels corruption, and endangers marine ecosystems and local communities.

Germany – During a forest tour in Reiersdorf, Brandenburg, Greenpeace highlights the extreme fire risk posed by pine monocultures, showing how structurally diverse mixed forests with deadwood cool the ground and naturally prevent wildfires.

Netherlands – Activists from Greenpeace Netherlands have modified the names of several train stations following yet another tropical day this summer. Stations were renamed to ‘Hotterdam Centraal’, ‘Amsterwarm Centraal’, ‘Grillversum Media Park’, and ‘Smelthogenbosch’. With temperatures soaring well above 30°C and a record number of tropical days, the campaign highlights the reality of the climate crisis caused by fossil fuels and emphasizes that these extreme weather events are no longer exceptions. The action calls on politicians to take decisive steps toward phasing out fossil energy ahead of the Climate March in Amsterdam on September 12.

Denmark – Danish fjords, lakes and coastal waters are plagued by oxygen depletion due to decades of pollution from industrial pig farming. Greenpeace Nordic is on an expedition to measure and document the extent of the problem, as well as nitrogen pollution, which originates mainly from pig manure spread onto the fields.

Germany – Drought impacts Rhine River’s water level in Germany. The river Rhine shown here with a very low water level in Cologne.

Greenpeace has been a pioneer of photo activism for more than 50 years, and remains committed to bearing witness and exposing environmental injustice through the images we capture.

To see more Greenpeace photos and videos, please visit our Media Library.

New York – As the fifth round of negotiations concludes at the United Nations in New York, an ambitious Global Tax Treaty – also known as the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – remains within reach. Major improvements to the zero draft text are still needed, however, to deliver global tax rules that will help solve the connected climate, nature, and inequality crises, rather than letting corporate polluters and the super-rich off the hook.

Nina Stros, Global Senior Policy Expert, Greenpeace International Political Unit said: “Global South demands for fair and inclusive international tax rules are starting to shape the text of the Framework Convention, and that is real progress. But without trust and a commitment from all parties to negotiate in good faith, we risk an empty treaty that fails to address problems everyone acknowledges exist. The most ambitious version of the Global Tax Treaty can only be built on truly international tax cooperation, where every voice counts, including those of the communities hit hardest by the climate crisis, not just predominantly those of the wealthiest polluters and their patrons.

“Outside these negotiating rooms, people are living through extreme weather and rising bills, paying for a crisis they did little to cause, while the wealthiest polluters keep profiting. Too many countries are losing revenues to tax havens. The Global Tax Treaty is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to correct the unfairness and the dysfunctions of existing tax agreements and the broken corporate tax system. It’s time for every country to step up and bring concrete solutions that work for people and the planet.”

Key takeaways from INC-5 include:

• A strong Global Tax Treaty is still a long way off, but the developments from this session were encouraging. Negotiations moved from the abstract to the concrete. The draft text is moving towards a fairer allocation of taxing rights over multinational profits, which could overhaul the unfair and undemocratic system currently shaped by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• Global South countries showed strength and unity, many coming together to defend strong language on fairer allocation of taxing rights and to push for more robust articles, including on taxing high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) and on harmful tax practices. Some emerging and middle-income economies played a bridge-building role, including regarding the article on sustainable development; arguably a sign of wider shifts in global power and of a growing understanding that this treaty is instrumental in delivering other UN agreements, like those under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Wealthy nations, particularly in Europe, favoured complaining over proposing solutions. Despite countries championing climate action in other global forums, European countries mostly stayed silent on sustainable development here, and many called for changes that would defend the status-quo of corporate and super-rich tax-dodging. They must move from complainer to solution-seeker, not only to rebuild trust with the Global South and unlock ambition, but so that their own people benefit from the hundreds of billions of dollars a year that could be reclaimed by holding the wealthiest polluters to account.
• Momentum is building towards environment-aligned tax and spending. Several Global South countries signalled they would bring forward new proposals to strengthen the treaty’s environmental tax and sustainable development provisions in Article 4, which some Global North countries have expressed interest to explore. With more ambition, this could lay the legal foundations for global and national progressive polluter taxes, while ensuring that governments’ tax and spending policies support global climate and environmental agreements.
• Heightened discussions on Article 6, concerning the taxation of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), particularly across G77 countries, showed that cross-regional cooperation and alliances hold a significant potential for a bolder outcome.

There was also broad support among countries for bringing civil society and other stakeholders into future Conference of Parties (COP) meetings, which will be vital to raise ambition and hold countries to account through this process as it moves towards delivering the treaty.

Negotiations for the Global Tax Treaty will continue until mid-2027. The sixth round of negotiations will be held in Nairobi from 30 November to 11 December 2026, followed by three further rounds of negotiations next year. Greenpeace will continue to attend, urging every country to be guided by the realities their people face outside the negotiating room, and to hold negotiators to the promise this treaty represents.

ENDS

Contact:

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org 

This story was originally posted by Greenpeace Africa

As the sun rises over Lokolama, the forest awakens long before we do.

Birdsong echoes through the canopy. Our elders are already walking the familiar forest paths they have known all their lives. Barefoot children run freely among the trees, unaware that during August the world is celebrating the Indigenous Peoples Month.

For them, this month is no different from any other.

It is simply another month spent with the forest that feeds them, protects them, heals them and teaches them how to live.

For me, however, this month is a reminder. A reminder that our story deserves to be told differently.

For far too long, Indigenous Peoples have been portrayed as vulnerable communities in need of protection. Yet long before the world began talking about climate change, biodiversity or nature-based solutions, our ancestors from Africa and other parts of the planet were already protecting these forests. They understood something fundamental: you do not own the forest, you belong to it.

I was born in Lokolama, Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Here, I learned to recognise the trees, to listen to the silence of the forest, and to understand that every river, every peatland and every living species forms part of a fragile balance that we have a responsibility to pass on to future generations.

Our ancestral knowledge is far more than a cultural heritage

Last year, Greenpeace Africa came to our village.

For several days, we walked together beneath the towering trees. We shared our stories, listened to our elders, met with young people, learned from the women of our community and discovered together that our ancestral knowledge is far more than a cultural heritage. It is a practical response to many of the challenges our planet faces today. The expedition to Lokolama and Penzélé showed that Indigenous communities are not merely beneficiaries of conservation; we are its first architects.

The forest is our past, our present and our future

One memory remains especially vivid.

I remember watching the children as they drew their vision of the perfect forest.

Not one of them drew an empty forest.

They drew towering trees, rivers filled with fish, bonobos, birds, butterflies and families living together in harmony with nature.

Their drawings were simple.

Yet they carried a profound truth:

Our forest is our home, our identity and our future

I also remember our conversations with the communities of Penzélé.

We spoke about past challenges and misunderstandings, but above all, about our shared determination to build a future where forests are no longer a source of conflict but a place of cooperation and peace. Because protecting the forest also means protecting the bonds that unite the people who call it home.

Today, as world leaders discuss climate finance, carbon markets, biodiversity and sustainable development, I would like to remind them of one essential truth.

The forests of the Congo Basin did not wait for international conferences to be protected

These forests have been safeguarded for generations by the women, men and young people who live within them.

Our knowledge does not come from books.

It comes from the seasons.

From the rivers.

From the trees.

From the forest paths our grandparents taught us to walk with humility and respect.

This does not mean that we reject development.

On the contrary.

We aspire to quality schools, accessible healthcare, better roads that connect our villages and opportunities for our young people.

But we believe that genuine development can never come at the expense of our identity, our ancestral lands or our rights.

We want to be part of decision making processes

We want to be partners.

Not merely observers.

We want to participate in the decisions that affect our territories because no one knows this forest better than the people who have lived with it for generations.

I am not asking the world to celebrate us.

I am asking the world to listen to us.

To listen to the voices rising from Lokolama, from Penzélé and from countless other villages across the Congo Basin and across the Earth.

Because behind every one of those voices lies knowledge, solutions and a vision of the future that our planet needs now more than ever.

Our shared future depends on our ability to protect the world’s forests.

And protecting forests begins with respecting those who have always been their first guardians.

We are Indigenous Peoples.

We are not the past.

We are an essential part of the future of the Congo Basin.

And as long as the forest continues to breathe,

We will continue walking beside it.

Defend the defenders

Demand the recognition of Indigenous rights and their territories.

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Valentin Engobo Mufia is a Representative of the Tshwa Indigenous People of Lokolama from The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

True allyship can only take hold when we recognise that Indigenous peoples’ struggles are intricately bound up with our collective fate. Our greatest hope against ecological breakdown is to support Indigenous sovereignty and actively join the global resistance against extractive industries. This is a matter of our mutual survival and liberation.

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” 

— Lilla Watson, Gangulu woman, ‘Aboriginal Activists’ Group

What is extractivism?

Differing from the simple act of harvesting a resource (such as cutting down a  single tree), extractivism is an economic model that treats the Earth as an endless storehouse of raw materials. Nature is commodified and extracted at an industrial scale and exported to enrich distant interests, while local communities (often Indigenous) bear the devastating ecological and social costs. 

It’s no coincidence that the concept of extractivismo (extractivism) originated in Latin America – a region that has served as ground zero for over 500 years of imperial plunder, while simultaneously remaining the global heartland of Indigenous frontline resistance.

The battle over recognition and sovereignty

For many Indigenous communities, resisting extractivism looks like a fundamental struggle to exist in the eyes of the law. States have long used the denial of Indigenous identity as a tactical weapon to erase land claims, clear territories for corporate concessions and evade legal accountability under international law.

Nevertheless, Indigenous movements have generated some of the most vibrant, historic and effective mobilisations in recent memory. An Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) report found that Indigenous-led resistance in North America has successfully delayed or stopped greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least 25% of annual US and Canadian emissions. 

Through decades of tireless organizing, Indigenous leaders secured foundational frameworks like ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). These instruments serve to enshrine the principle of self-determination, establishing that Indigenous peoples alone have the right to define their own identities, institutions and relationships to their territories.

The high cost of defense

Frontline Indigenous defenders routinely face systemic intimidation, land theft, state criminalization and lethal violence. According to data from Global Witness, while Indigenous peoples represent roughly 6% of the global population, they consistently account for more than one-third of all land and environmental defenders murdered worldwide each year. 

Colonial states also spread racist and prejudiced narratives about supposed Indigenous inferiority. These myths have permeated many levels of society and led to a profound disconnection not only from Indigenous peoples but also ancient traditions, their wisdom, knowledge systems and ways of relating with the Earth and other living beings that we sorely need to revive. 

Confronting ‘green extractivism’

Today, Indigenous movements are also challenging accelerating demand for so-called ‘critical minerals’. Brought about by the energy transition, AI and Big Tech, and the defense sector, this speculative rush for minerals is giving rise to new sacrifice zones.

In her book Extraction, political scientist Thea Riofrancos spotlights frontline Indigenous communities fighting back against ‘green extractivism,’ exposing how the rush for clean energy minerals risks repeating historic colonial harms. To break this cycle, Riofrancos advocates for solutions that move beyond simply swapping gas-powered vehicles for electric ones, calling instead for public transit investments, circular material recycling and a deliberate reduction in overall resource consumption.

In response to today’s intensifying extractive rush, Greenpeace has partnered with other NGOs and experts to launch the Restricted Areas Map, indicating places where mining poses unacceptable environmental, social, cultural or rights-related risks.

Demands of Indigenous environmental movements

Across courtroom battles, frontline blockade and international climate summits, Indigenous activists share a repeating set of demands. 

In 2025, Indigenous youth representatives from the world’s primary tropical forest basins, the Amazon, the Congo Basin, Borneo and West Papua, penned their version with the Sira Declaration. Drafted in West Papua, the declaration lays out a call to action for governments, corporations and international bodies to:

1. Recognize and Secure Land Sovereignty: Legal recognition and enforcement of customary land titles, enforcing full self-determination and the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
2. End Militarization, Violence and Criminalization: An immediate end to state-sponsored military operations, arbitrary arrests and violence targeted at Indigenous environmental defenders.
3. Halt ‘Green Colonialism’ and Extractive Projects: Resist industrial mining, logging, fossil fuels and speculative critical-mineral exploitation, rejecting any climate ‘solutions’ that turn Indigenous territories into sacrifice zones.
4. Direct Climate Financing to Indigenous Communities: Routing global climate, conservation and loss-and-damage funds directly to Indigenous nations and youth-led groups on the frontlines, bypassing intermediaries.
5. Center Traditional Knowledge and Youth/Women Governance: Guaranteeing leadership seats for Indigenous youth and women in international climate policy.

Public support for Indigenous leadership

Global public opinion strongly supports these demands. A Greenpeace poll spanning 17 countries across five continents* revealed that 78% of respondents trust Indigenous Peoples and local communities most to protect forests (compared to 49% for governments and 42% for corporations). Additionally, 75% of respondents agree that Indigenous peoples should receive direct climate funding to safeguard their ancestral territories.

Building a just, post-extractivist future

Stopping destructive corporate projects is only the first step. A post-extractive future requires a post-colonial future. In a time as critical as this, non-Indigenous allies cannot remain passive observers. Decolonisation requires that settler populations actively reject the ideology of extractivism by rejecting the commodification, domination and exploitation of Nature. 

Indigenous leadership provides practical blueprints for post-extractive societies founded on care, ecological balance and generational/collective well-being. A Greenpeace report highlights inspiring case studies of community-led forest solutions.

Defend the defenders

Demand the recognition of Indigenous rights and their territories.

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*Polling Methodology Note: Countries surveyed include Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, USA, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.

Tsering Lama is a storytelling manager with Greenpeace International.