The urgency to protect the Amazon and support Indigenous communities could not be greater. Our climate, health and future depend on protecting the Amazon and its peoples; their survival is our survival, their forests, our shared insurance against runaway climate change and biodiversity collapse. To succeed, it must deliver tangible commitments to Indigenous peoples, including legal protection of land rights, investments in healthcare, financing for bioeconomy growth and direct funding mechanisms. Indigenous peoples have been protecting these forests for millennia. As COP30 convenes in the heart of the Amazon, world leaders must recognise this truth: to protect the planet, we must first protect the protectors.