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Meeting on Climate Change in the Amazon Basin - Diagnosis of the situation to work out a plan and a common action strategy
The Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin , COICA, consists of nine indigenous organizations, one from each country in the Amazon Basin . COICA's First Forum on Climate Change in the Amazon Basin , from August 7-9 2008 in COICA's central office in Quito , Ecuador , analyzed the critical issue of climate change and the rainforests of Amazonian indigenous peoples.
The organizations that compose COICA are:
1 Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana AIDESEP - Peru
2 Amerindian Peoples´ Association of Guyana APA - Guyana
3 Confederación de los Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia CIDOB - Bolivia
4 Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira COIAB - Brazil
5 Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana CONFENIAE - Ecuador
6 Organización Regional de Pueblos Indigenas Amazónico - ORPIA - Venezuela
7 Fédération des Organisations Amérindiennes de Guyane FOAG – French Guiana
8 Organisatie van Inheemsen in Suriname OIS - Suriname
9 Organización de los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonía Colombiana OPIAC - Colombia
COICA is an international organization of all indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin , which is legally recognized by the Ecuadorian government and has the following misión and objectives:
• Promote, develop, and implement the necessary mechanisms for join work between Amazonian indigenous peoples and organizations.
• Defend territorial rights, self-determination, and ensure respect for the human rights of our indigenous peoples.
• Coordinate with diverse indigenous peoples to speak on their behalf to international organizations about the activities they are carrying out in the Amazon Basin .
• Strengthen the unity and mutual collaboration among all indigenous peoples in the region
• Promote the value of the culture of our peoples
Indigenous peoples have been economically and politically marginalized, but in the last decade our rights to participate in decisions that affect our lands, territories, and natural resources have been increasingly recognized within international standards and laws. The systematic exclusion that we suffer as Amazonian peoples continues in climate change negotiations. Within the design of the framework of the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), within the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, within the National Programs of Climate Change, and within the Offices of Clean Development that are within the governments of the countries mentioned above, we have NEVER been consulted in accordance with legal standards at the international, national, or even at a local level.
The ILO Convention 169 was one of the first conventions to explicitly recognize the right of indigenous peoples to participate in decision-making processes, including the right to free prior informed consent.
Other relevant treaties and conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the American Convention of
Human Rights, and the American Declaration of Human Rights, have reinforced the collective rights of indigenous peoples.
Recently, the struggles of indigenous peoples have received strong support from United Nations with the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which defines the rights of indigenous peoples to control access and management of natural resources, which indicates, for example, that “
Most recently, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples strongly recognized the rights of indigenous peoples to control access to and manage their natural resources, indicating, for example, that “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned . . . in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing . . . measures that may affect them” and that “Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights” and furthermore that “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development.”
International organizations are defining the future of our forests and the earth's climate. It is their moral responsibility, their legal obligation under international law, and a requirement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to include in their planning the Amazonian indigenous peoples, who have historically been the guardians of their territories and forests.
We support the decision of the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity in COP9 to recognize the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within all relevant decisions. The conservation of biodiversity must be achieved in coordination with indigenous peoples who will be directly affected.
We demand that any action related to REDD should provide direct benefits to Amazonian indigenous peoples, in accordance with national law and applicable international legal standards.
We emphasize that, in addition to moral and legal obligations for the inclusion of legitimate indigenous organizations in decision-making related to climate change, it is not practical to design solutions to climate change without the full, effective participation of indigenous peoples. Since we indigenous peoples are the absolute owners of our territories and our forests, proposals that do not include our knowledge and our priorities will not function in reality. We hope it is not necessary for us to point out the thousands of failed projects and policies that institutions have tried to impose on indigenous peoples.
After three days of intensive work with the participation of a panel of experts, the technical support of the Amazon Alliance, the indigenous organizations that are members of COICA, and the National Council of Rubber Tappers of Brazil, (Conselho Nacional dos Seringuerios – CNS), we resolve the following:
• We demand that all states and governmental bodies of industrial countries apply the principles of “Environmental Justice” and “Climate Justice”
• We insist on full, effective, ample, and timely participation in all decision-making instances at the international level (UN, OAS, CBD, IPCCC); at the regional level (ACTO, CAN, MERCOSUR, PNCC, ODL); and at the local level.
• We reject any attempt by the governments in the Amazon Basin to develop national or international legislation related to biodiversity or climate change that could affect indigenous peoples without the full participation that we are legally entitled to.
• We demand the enforcement of existing laws that establish and protect indigenous peoples collective rights.
• We demand that our right to free prior informed consent be applied to proposals about climate change that involve our territories.
• We insist that states and governments show absolute respect for the indigenous organizations of the Amazon Basin , which, as demonstrated by their bylaws and national law, are the only valid representative instances for indigenous participation in processes of analysis, planning, and implementation of policies, programs, and projects that affect their territories.
• COICA and its member organizations are in the process of developing an Indigenous Strategy on Climate Change, which will address the concepts of “adaptation” and “mitigation”, but will implement these concepts in accordance with Amazonian indigenous cosmovision and the Amazonian Indigenous Agenda. This strategy must be incorporated in all policies, programs, and projects that are being developed.
COICA and its member organizations are in the process of evaluating the existing economic models of the world, which are fully to blame for current ecological, social, and cultural disasters. We will present to the world a “New Paradigm for Intercultural Development” which emphasizes the rights of human beings to equality, equity, respect, and horizontal communication.
CCC- COICA
Sr. Jorge Furagaro Sr. Tony Rodney James
OPIAC- COLOMBIA APA -GUYANA INGLESA
Lic. José Avilés Sr. León Ericson Wijngaarde
CONFENIAE –ECUADOR OIS – SURINAM E
Sr. Francisco Avelino Batista Sr. Aniceto Ayala López
COIAB -BRASIL CIDOB -BOLIVIA
Sr. Juan Reategui Silva
AIDESEP- PERÚ
CDC- COICA
Dra. Rosa Alvarado Sr. Diego Escobar
VICE-COORDINADORA COICA COORDINADOR DE AREA TERRITORIO, MEDIO AMBIENTE Y BIODIVERSIDAD
COICA
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