Filipino climate advocates completed a 25-meter mural in downtown Belém as COP30 concluded, using public art to highlight shared ecological struggles in the Amazon and the Philippines.
The team—muralist A.G. Saño, development worker Bro. Tagoy Jakosalem, OAR, and environmentalist Yeb Saño—created the piece to draw attention to the destruction faced by frontline communities in the Global South.
The artwork connected “the rivers of the Amazon to the Philippine seas,” underscoring what the group described as the deepening impacts of environmental degradation.
The mural prominently featured Pope Francis, whose environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ marked its 10th anniversary this year.
The artists said they wanted the work to carry the moral weight of the pope’s appeal for ecological conversion.
“We have created a message platform of the ecological inspiration of Pope Francis, that goes beyond the failed negotiation spaces of the COP30. Our images speak of the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” Saño said.
Images of threatened Amazonian species, including pink dolphins and several bird species, were set alongside the beloved Our Lady of Nazareth. She is depicted being carried by Filipino sea defender Jonet Abdon, who was killed in 2020 during a community patrol against illegal fishing in Masbate.
The mural also honored Brazilian “eco-martyr” Sister Cleusa Coelho of the Missionary Sisters of the Augustinian Recollects, who was murdered in 1985 after denouncing violence against Indigenous Peoples by mining and logging companies.
By bridging Brazilian and Filipino imagery, the artists aimed to show the interconnected nature of ecological injustice and the shared fight of communities resisting the exploitation of land and oceans. They said the mural stands as a visual testament to global solidarity among environmental defenders.
