What We Experience When We Walk Through the Mountains

What We Experience When We Walk Through the Mountains by María Fernanda Franco, Putumayo Process, ACT-Colombia Each time I have returned from an expedition in the territories in which we work, a mixture of joy and nostalgia has suffused me, because many sensations and lesson learned remain after our time there and our exchanges with the people. The expeditions present the possibility of becoming familiar with the territory in which we work (and that we…

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Why are they persecuting us?

On this path of leadership, and as long as I can remember, I have experienced war. By: Waira Nina Jacanamijoy Mutumbajoy Original article appears in El Tiempo May 28, 2019 I have the honor of providing this space to Waira Nina Jacanamijoy Mutumbajoy, an artist and leader of the Inga people of the Yurayaco community…

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Oral Histories: Helping the Kogui Manage their Territory

Two of ACT’s objectives in our work at Jaba Tañiwashkaka, a coastal sacred site of the indigenous peoples of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region, are to increase the territorial management capacity of indigenous leadership and to establish conservation agreements between the local indigenous and non-indigenous communities. In contexts like the Sierra Nevada de…

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Using Satellite Technology to Protect Isolated Tribes in the Amazon Rainforest

A field team from ACT traveled to the Curare – Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve in the Colombian Amazon in July to assist local communities in the creation of a detailed management plan for their rainforest territories that integrates western and traditional perspectives to achieve sound conservation practices. Amazingly, this remote reserve has spearheaded national efforts…

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What is the correlation between the protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and the protection of the Amazon?

Let’s start with a question. If you lived in South America, and had to run away from society, where would you hide? The most remote areas of the Amazon, where thousands of small rivers are born and eventually become giant waterways—which along the way irrigate millions of trees, and in their final destination feed the…

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Conserving the Vast Biodiversity of the Colombian Amazon

The great wealth of biodiversity present in the Amazon is at serious risk of disappearing due to several threats, which must be addressed through the joint work of the various stakeholders in the region. One of the first steps in addressing this problem is to identify which species of flora and fauna are present in…

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The River School: Indigenous Communities Learning & Working Together for the Protection of Key Ecosystems in Colombia

Winding river drone view

Throughout ACT’s more than 20 years of conservation and indigenous rights work in South America, one of the greatest challenges our partner communities voice is the gaining of effective control over their territories. Conspicuously, many countries have legal means through which local autonomy can be achieved, but the communities still need the basic skills necessary…

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Colombian Government Approves Decree for the Protection of Isolated Indigenous Groups

National parkland

On July 17, 2018, the Colombian government approved a landmark national public policy for the protection of isolated indigenous groups. The policy was developed in a collaboration led by the Colombian Ministry of the Interior with the participation of governmental entities and local and regional indigenous organizations, supported by technical and legal assistance from the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Team (ACT). his groundbreaking national public policy was the first in the Amazon region directly led by the grassroots efforts of neighboring indigenous communities and indigenous organizations undergoing a process of free prior informed consent according to international regulations, thus resulting in an unprecedented integration of traditional spiritual worldviews in modern environmental protection strategies.

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