As part of the Planetary Embassy in Belém during the UN climate summit COP30, Swissnex, in partnership with the Hutukara Yanomami Association and the Berggruen Institute, invites you to a conversation with Davi Kopenawa, shaman and leader of the Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest.
Inspired by Swissnex’s theme of planetary diplomacy, the event will bring into dialogue two worldviews: the Yanomami understanding of the relationship between humans and the Earth, and the multilateral diplomacy practiced at COP30 as nations work to protect our shared planet. It will explore how indigenous knowledge and cosmologies can broaden our understanding of diplomacy beyond the human realm, opening it to the wider web of life. For the Yanomami, the forest-land, or Urihi, is a living being, home to the Xapiri spirits who maintain the balance of the world. These perspectives invite us to imagine new forms of diplomacy rooted in listening, reciprocity, and care.
Guests will also be invited to visit the exhibition Imagining Planetary Diplomacy, on view at the Planetary Embassy in Belém. Part of Swissnex the Planet, the exhibition presents visions of planetary diplomacy collected through an open call to young researchers, innovators, and artists from across the global Swissnex network. Together, these works explore what it would mean to create a planetary diplomacy that looks beyond human interests to help restore balance with the planet.
Bio
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami is a Yanomami shaman, political activist, and president of the Hutukara Yanomami Association. Born in the Toototobi region of Amazonas around 1956, he has spent more than 30 years traveling the world to defend his people, who live in the Yanomami Indigenous Land—the largest demarcated Indigenous territory in Brazil. His tireless struggle was instrumental in securing the official recognition of this territory in 1992. Recognized globally as the main leader of the Yanomami people, Davi has received numerous honors, including the United Nations Global 500 Award (1989), the Right Livelihood Award (2019), and the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2025) from the French government. He also holds honorary doctorates from the Federal University of Roraima, the Federal University of São Paulo, and the State University of Goiás. As co-author, with French anthropologist Bruce Albert, of The Falling Sky (2010) and The Spirit of the Forest (2023), Davi continues to share his vision and philosophy, breaking the barriers of colonial thought and acting, in his words, “like an arrow to touch the heart of non-Indigenous society.” Under his leadership, the Hutukara Yanomami Association celebrates two decades of defending the well-being and bem viver of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana peoples.
Bio
Géraldine Pflieger is a full professor of urban and environmental policy at the University of Geneva (Department of Political Science and International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences and Institute of Environmental Sciences). She holds a PhD in urban planning from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris), and was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the EPFL as a researcher from 2003 to 2008, and then the University of Lausanne as an assistant professor from 2008 to 2010. She joined the University of Geneva in 2010 as a lecturer and then became a professor in 2014. Since 2015, she has co-directed the UNESCO Chair in Hydropolitics at UNIGE with Christian Bréthaut. From 2020, at the suggestion of the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences and by appointment of the Federal Council, she became associate negotiator and science representative on the Swiss delegation responsible for climate negotiations at the COPs. She is lead author of the next IPCC special report on climate change and cities.
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Gabriella Seiler is a Planetary Fellow at the Berggruen Institute. She is a Swiss-Brazilian entrepreneur and strategist working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, finance, and nature. She envisions a future where responsible innovation and science-based policymaking drive systemic transformation – especially in regions historically underrepresented in global decision-making. Gabriella was an early founding partner and COO of Kunumi, a Brazil-based AI company and certified B Corp that pioneered the application of artificial intelligence to societal challenges, from environmental monitoring to public health. Kunumi was acquired by Bradesco in 2023. Earlier in her career, Gabriella spent two decades shaping sustainable finance and infrastructure strategies across public and private sectors, including at Morgan Stanley in New York, the International Finance Corporation in Washington, Vinci Partners in Brazil, and Brazil’s Ministry of Finance. Currently, she is helping establish a new science and policy Institute for Biodiversity and Climate at the Serrapilheira Institute, a leading science philanthropy organization in Brazil. She also serves as an advisor and board member on AI and innovation initiatives and contributes to projects aimed at increasing racial and ethnic diversity in science and decision-making. Gabriella holds a BA in Economics from Duke University and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a Mason Fellow. An Eisenhower Fellow, she is a passionate advocate for the ethical design of digital futures – rooted in scientific knowledge, equity, and planetary care. She lives in Rio de Janeiro and thrives at the interface of climate, policy, and technological innovation.
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André Braga Junqueira is a biologist with nearly twenty years of experience working at the interface between academic science and the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. His work seeks to facilitate dialogue between different ways of knowing, collaborating with Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples to develop more effective and equitable solutions to the climate and sustainability crises, with the goal of supporting their rights, visions, and ways of life. Throughout his career, he has worked with institutions such as the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), Wageningen University, International Institute for Sustainability, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the Serrapilheira Institute, moving across academic fields, civil society organizations, and intercultural initiatives. He currently serves on the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), where he coordinates the facilitation of knowledge dialogues and the engagement strategy with Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and Local Communities. His work aims to bridge different knowledge systems and foster collaborative processes at the interface of science, public policy, and territorial experiences – toward a living, just, and resilient Amazonian future.
Bio
Benjamin Bollmann is CEO of Swissnex in Brazil since January 2025. He was previously CEO of Swissnex in Boston and New York, and Consul of Switzerland in Boston. He is the Chair of Swissnex’s CEO Committee, which coordinates strategic priorities across the global Swissnex network. Under his leadership, Swissnex has launched several long-term initiatives such as Project Quantum, Climate Collider, and more recently Swissnex for the Planet. Until 2020, Benjamin was Deputy CEO at Swissnex in San Francisco, where he led interdisciplinary programs ranging from science communication to humanitarian technologies and human rights in the digital age. Before joining Swissnex in 2015, he worked as a journalist and communications consultant at the interface of science and design in Switzerland. He is a graduate of ETH Zurich and has conducted research in neuroscience and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
From November 9 to 21, 2025, the Planetary Embassy comes to life in Belém, Brazil, on the margins of the UN climate summit COP30. Part of a series of pop-up experiences across the global Swissnex network, this edition is hosted in the zoobotanical gardens of the Goeldi Museum, a setting that blends the Amazon's biodiversity, science, ancestral wisdom, and Swiss legacy.
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The Planetary Embassy in presented by Swissnex in Brazil with the support of Presence Switzerland, as part of the Road to Belém program led by the Embassy of Switzerland in Brazil.
