2.2.5 Territorial Security Balance of Countries in the Amazon Basin

From a regional point of view, without a doubt, there have been significant progresses in the legal recognition of indigenous lands and territories, as a result of the struggle of indigenous organizations and the rights reached through constitutional reforms and the ratification of ILO’s 169 Agreement. Starting from this acknowledgement, the actions to advance on the legal recognition of our lands have deepened, although not without any problems. Several countries count with specific legal programs, such as is the case of Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Peru and in others such as Bolivia and Ecuador, the legalization of our lands is part of national land regularization programs. Moreover, in other countries such as Guyana, Surinam and the French Guyana, the lack of recognition of our rights as peoples and of land legalization policies, keep us in high vulnerability situations.

The above-mentioned progresses, however, are not enough to attain a real territorial security. Be it either by the limitations observed in the legalization processes, or due to the accelerated increase of external threats, most of them, associated to the exploitation of the natural resources found in our territories, and in other cases, such as is the case of Colombia, where the territories have become a scenery of war. Next, the main points relation to the advances and limitations of this process, as well as the strategies that organizations are developing for territorial defense are explained.