The search for solutions to the climate crisis does not get any more radical, far-reaching or deeper into nature than the alternative climate conference currently taking place in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

In the past few days, European climate strikers and Extinction Rebellion youth activists have travelled by motor canoe deep into a region known as Terra do Meio to share ideas with indigenous leaders, forest dwellers, environmental activists and Brazil’s leading climate scientists, anthropologists and archaeologists. The Russian punk anarchist Nadya Tolokonnikova, of Pussy Riot, was also set to join the gathering along with local artists and Catholic bishops.

Their goal is to move the Amazon from the periphery to the centre of the global debate about the breakdown of the climate and other natural life support systems. They also want to demonstrate that Brazil can continue to play a positive role despite the country’s decision not to host this year’s official United Nations climate talks in the wake of ultra-nationalist Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential election victory.

The event, which has been dubbed the Forest COP and takes place a few weeks before the official COP 25 climate conference in Madrid. It has been organised by Brazil’s biggest environmental organisation, the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), with the Ibirapitanga Institute and the Iriri extractivist association.

The rainforest is essential for Brazilian agriculture and the global climate. While nature-based solutions and environmental justice have risen rapidly up the climate agenda in the past year and scientific research has shown the huge carbon-sequestration potential of tree-planting campaigns, protecting and restoring old forests is more effective, particularly in the tropics.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Campaigners pass a logging truck on their way to the forest gathering. Photograph: Lilo Clareto/ISA/The Guardian

The earth scientist Antonio Nobre said he dropped everything to attend the intergenerational, international, interdisciplinary gathering. His research has demonstrated how healthy rainforests create “flying rivers”, cool the surface of the Earth and efficiently sequester carbon. He said the super-biome has survived for 50 million years despite volcanic eruptions, glacial eras, meteors and continental drift, but has been threatened like never before by the last 50 years of human activity.

“The Amazon is the centre of the world,” he said. “Greta [Thunberg] says we should listen to the scientists. But what scientists need to do is listen to the wise people of the forest.”

For many in Brazilian civil society, the meeting is a chance to regroup and find new inspiration during a dismal period in which the new government has weakened environmental protections, undermined funding for NGOs and encouraged forest fires and illegal land seizures.

“We were feeling very down. We felt paralysed. Then we heard about this new movement of the youth, which had been started by Greta Thunberg, and taken on by Extinction Rebellion. It was a huge inspiration. We wanted to connect this generation in Europe with indigenous and riverine communities, who want more people to come and see what is happening in their land,” said Marcelo Salazar, regional head of ISA.

Several of the European participants, including Belgian climate youth activists Anuna De Wever and Adélaïde Charlier, spent weeks crossing the Atlantic by sailboat to avoid the high carbon emissions of flying. Others offset their journeys on their first day of the trip by planting a variety of native seeds in a forest restoration project.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A member of the Rio Nose community with a handful of Brazil nuts, which will be sold and reprocessed as oil. Photograph: Lilo Clareto/ISA/The Guardian

The small Forest COP will be followed by a bigger gathering in Altamira from Sunday. They aim to view the climate debate from the forest rather than the city, and to put people and nature at its heart. This is a deliberate contrast to the top-down approach of official UN COP meetings, where the emphasis is more on economics, technology and urbanisation. Although the Amazon event has far fewer participants, the logistics and risks are arguably greater.

After a briefing about threats posed by snakes, stingrays, spiders, malaria and yellow fever, the group set out along the Trans-Amazonian highway through several of Brazil’s worst areas of deforestation and violence. This included the Arara do Cachoeira Seca indigenous territory, which has been invaded by illegal loggers, farmers, miners and land grabbers.

They then travelled along the Iriri River into the forests of Terra do Meio, which is an area of indigenous territories, conservation units and extractive reserves – all of which are under increasing pressure.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Forest COP participants travelling by canoe. Photograph: Lilo Clareto/ISA/The Guardian

Tasso Azevedo, who is one of Brazil’s leading experts on satellite monitoring of deforestation, stressed the importance of shifting perspective from a technological view from space to face-to-face meetings on the ground. “There are not enough opportunities in the world today for different generations to talk to one another, especially in a place like this,” he said. “We need to explore new ideas. When I was born in 1972, 99% of the Amazon rainforest was intact. Since then we have lost 20%.”

This August, the scale of devastation hit its highest level in a decade. Today, land grabbers continue to set fires to clear trees ahead of the rainy season.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anita Akawil Yudja, a Brazilian indigenous activist, and Elijah McKenzie-Jackson, a British student climate striker. Photograph: Lilo Clareto/ISA/The Guardian

The young European contingent said they had come to learn. “I’m here because a lot of young people in Europe realise we need a new world, but our adults don’t know how to live any differently. The people here do,” said Robin Ellis-Cockcroft, an Extinction Rebellion Youth organiser. “If we could change the power dynamics in the world, we might have a chance.”

Alejandra Piazzolla, a Colombian student and Extinction Rebellion activist in Bristol, said: “We realise Europe has only just started the fight to preserve the climate, but indigenous communities have been doing this for 500 years. We’d be in a much worse situation if they hadn’t fought all this time.”

In this part of the Amazon, the struggle can be dangerous. The murder rates are higher than anywhere in Brazil, which already has one of the world’s worst.

The indigenous chief Raoni, of the Kayapó people, was also expected to join the talks, along with representatives of the Yanomami, Juruna, Arara, and Muduruku indigenous groups. Many warn that they face greater risks in defending their land, as the recent murder of forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara in neighbouring Maranhão state has shown. But they are increasingly allied with former enemies among other traditional forest communities, including quilombolas (descendants of rebel slaves) and ribeirinhos (whose families initially moved into the region to tap rubber).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest UK climate strike activist Elijah McKenzie-Jackson sows carbon offset seeds with Forest COP initiator Eliane Brum. Photograph: Lilo Clareto/ISA/The Guardian

Right wing commentators have been calling for a mobilisation of “patriots” against the conference in Altamira, which they claim is being used by ecosocialists and international NGOs to undermine Brazil’s sovereignty. The organisers and funders - all from Brazil - say this is a common tactic to try to prevent discussion of Amazon issues.

“We represent many people from many places to defend Mother Earth,” said author and shaman Davi Kopenawa Yanomami. “All the world now knows what we Indians have been saying for decades. If you destroy the forest, it will get hotter and there will be harder rains.”