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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Amazon Conservation Team Congratulates Colombia On Creation of Amazon’s Largest National Park

Chiribiquete National Park

  The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) enthusiastically congratulates Colombia on the announcement of a 1.5-million-hectare expansion of Chiribiquete National Park, the country’s largest protected area. Increasing Chiribiquete’s area by over 50%, this protective measure will help stave off the extensive deforestation moving in from the northwest. Surrounding the park lie two of the most deforested…

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ACT and Opiac Participate in Second International Meeting on “Perspectives on Protection Policies for Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact”

The second international meeting on “Perspectives on Protection Policies for Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact”, held in Brazil, was successfully completed. The Colombia delegation consisted of Robinson Lopez, Human Rights and Peace Coordinator for the National Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC); Oswaldo Silva, a leader of the Curare – Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve of the Amazonas department; and Daniel Aristizábal of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), who presented a paper on the prior consultation process for a proposed decree for the prevention of risks to and the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in isolation of Colombia.

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Impact: Sacred Sites

Kogi people in a group

We know that our partner communities can best safeguard their forests when they have access to their traditional territories, sustainable livelihoods, and intact traditions. But there is often more. The elders frequently tell us that in order for their communities to truly flourish, they need to control lands that are sacred to them. From our…

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Breaking News: Final steps for the Issuance of a Decree for the Prevention of Threats to and the Protection of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation in Colombia

Indigenous peoples, through their national organizations, reached an agreement with the government of Colombia on the development of a public policy and a regulatory framework for the prevention of threats to and the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in isolation of Colombia. The spirit of the decree seeks to ensure the prevention of threats to and the protection of rights and the permanence of the condition of isolation of these peoples through territorial intangibility, which manifests through the no-contact principle.

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President Santos Announces a Decision Today

Members of indigenous community in Caqueta, Colombia work on a community map

After waiting 27 years, the indigenous governments of non-municipalized areas of the Amazon finally will be able to manage the money from their national government transfers without intermediaries.
In Leticia, the Presidency, the Ministries of the Interior, Finance and Agriculture, DANE (the Colombian national statistics agency and the Colombian National Planning Department recognized the governments of 36 indigenous reserves that occupy 26 million hectares of practically intact territory and that had existed in a state of legal limbo with respect to territorial zoning that prevented them, in effect, from governing what is theirs by law.

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Elías García, the Guardian of Native Seeds

On the banks of the Caquetá River, in Colombia, lives Elías García Ruíz, a member of the Murui Muina indigenous group who collects and cultivates native seeds such as that of the cacay tree (Caryodendron orinocense), which is disappearing from their territory because of selective logging of trees of high commercial value and an alarming advance of deforestation.

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