Initiatives

The following specific initiatives have been central to our field work of the last two decades. None of them is sufficient to achieve long-lasting security for the Northwest Amazon and its indigenous peoples. Together, however, these initiatives strengthen each other and the groups that implement them. This in turn guarantees that healthy communities means healthy forests. Here is a sample of our field work and policy work to date:

· The establishment of a state-local coordination platform that coordinates state and indigenous authorities. This has enabled the decentralization of official programs (education, health and environmental management). The platform is now recognized as part of the state administrative structure and covers 8 million hectares of rainforest, 13 ethnic groups and 18,000 people

· The creation of a training center run by indigenous leaders and Gaia Amazonas on the upper Caquetá river, in one of the most well-preserved areas of the Amazon rainforest. This center hosts meetings and workshops for indigenous communities from throughout the Northwest Amazon, as well as showcasing conservation and cultural practices to interested outsiders such as NGO leaders, scientists and philanthropists

· Orientation and support for local research efforts run by over 120 indigenous people and led by shamans and elders on sound rainforest resource management, resilience, and climate change adaptation

· Efforts toward the systematization and outside recognition of the indigenous system of sacred sites and associated shamanistic knowledge – currently recognized as national cultural heritage by the Colombian government and under consideration as Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO

· The creation of two additional protected areas (Parque Nacional Pure and Parque Nacional Yaigojé-Apaporis), covering over two million hectares, and the expansion of the official recognition of indigenous territories over a further 600,000 hectares of rainforest

· Mapping and Social Cartography of the Colombian Amazon and the threats it faces, as part of the RAISG Amazon-wide mapping program (in cooperation with Brazil’s Instituto Socioambiental). Monitoring of deforestation and climate change adaptation at the Amazon basin level

· The transboundary program coordination and expansion of the Conservation and Alliance of the Northwest Amazon (CANOA) – articulating the efforts of indigenous communities in the conservation of 70 million hectares of rainforest and fostering its expansion to 100 million hectares