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Colombia

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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Securing Land Rights for Indigenous Communities in Colombia: A Methodology

Ensuring the collective survival of indigenous peoples requires guaranteeing their rights and access to traditional lands. In Colombia, indigenous peoples’ struggle for ancestral land rights has been ongoing for more than four centuries, marked by collective mobilization and pressure before official entities. In Colombia, almost 500,000 indigenous people lack official recognition of their collective land…

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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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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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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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