Over the past year, several incredible strides have been made in the protection of the northwestern Amazon region. Using its proven model of working with and empowering indigenous peoples, ACT has helped guarantee a safer future for both the Amazon and its people.
The following are only a sample of what has been done in recent months:
- Eighty-six land management plans were formulated in August and September. To date, 236 land management plans for campesino farms have been formulated. ACT has made progress in an update of the land management plans for the San Miguel and Yurayaco indigenous reserves.
- Two training workshops were carried out with the participation of 59 teachers, students, parents and indigenous leaders of the Inga (Head Councils of Yunguillo and Puerto Guzmán [Putumayo] and the Tandachiridu Inganokuna Association [Caquetá]) and Koreguaje communities. The workshops’ contents included an overview of recent legislation regarding the right to indigenous educational processes and an analysis of national public policies regarding ethnoeducational processes and indigenous language. Tools were provided for the planning and execution of a participatory diagnostic on ethnoeducation issues in the communities, and practical experiences were provided to formulate the Inga and Koreguaje Community Educational Project (Proyecto Educativo Comunitario).
- One hundred and twenty leaders and shamans of the Inga and Kametzá community (San Francisco, Putumayo) came together to discuss issues such as the importance of prior consultation under the framework of IIRSA. The topics discussed in this training workshops were: 1) the Carlos Tamabioy traditional land; 2) overlapping indigenous reserves in the Sibundoy Valley; 3) reports on the expeditions carried out to advance the delimitation of boundaries of these communities’ traditional lands; 4) presentation of social cartography developed for each indigenous reserve; and 5) national legislation and procedures for the development of the prior consultation process.
- ACT’s geographer and geographic information systems (GIS) analyst produced maps required to help the Inga established their legal rights to these lands. He digitized the participatory elaboration of the San Miguel and Yurayaco reserve maps, social cartography that identifies sacred sites, forests, schools, and households, among other landmarks. Additionally, a series of thematic maps that address the relationship that the communities have among their place of residence and with different surrounding towns for the development of all kinds of activities were elaborated (e.g., sale of agricultural products, among other activities).
- Inga students of the Yachaicurí School participated in a training workshop on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
- ACT has made significant progress in a publication on the research on indigenous communities in voluntary isolation located in the Puré River Natural Park developed during the project’s first phase. The document Cariba Malo was reviewed and sent to Juan Álvaro Echeverri (National University in the Amazonas department), who has started the publishing process by providing the text to two external readers who will evaluate the viability of its publication. The book will be printed and distributed in January 2012 in close coordination with the NPS. In a parallel effort, ACT Colombia conducted research on the indigenous groups on voluntary isolation who inhabit the Cahuinarí National Park, compiling and reviewing secondary sources of information on the area’s history and anthropological data from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
