 Foundation, the tenure facility, and the Tulsa Writers Foundation. This initiative promotes the importance of recognizing legal ownership of Indigenous peoples and local communities' land rights as a prerequisite for achieving national and international goals for forest governance, food security, climate mitigation, economic development and human rights. This land dialogue series will run across four webinars from May to November, which have been tackling a different topic. I'm Fabio Tashira. I'm a journalist at the Tulsa Writers Foundation. Today, we're talking about pandemic, social unrest and war echoing in the Amazon. Recent global events have had dire impacts on the world's remaining forests, particularly in tropical regions. Disease outbreak, war and social insecurity may have originated in other parts of the globe. However, there are effects, ripple and affect the most vulnerable regions and people. This ripple effect has brought unwelcome impacts that have become apparent in the Amazon. Despite these threats to the Indigenous territories, hope does remain, which has been reflected politically in various countries in the region. For example, via the coming to power of Francia Marquez, the first Afro-Columbian vice president in the country's history. This is a monumental step in addressing inequality, as Marquez has been advocating for Indigenous rights and racial justice. This webinar will reflect on global events which have impacted the Amazon region, but will place a specific accent on the solutions and progress for a more secure future for Indigenous populations in the Amazon region. I'm joined today by a terrific panel to discuss those issues. I'll hand over to each one of them for some opening remarks. We'll then have a discussion for about an hour and finally take questions from the audience, which should take us about 90 minutes. The webinar will take place in English and be simultaneously interpreted to Spanish, French and Portuguese. To access the interpretation, please see the channels located at the bottom of your screen. If you do have a question, please post them using the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen, and not the chat box feature. And I will then field those questions to the panelists so we don't have to go through the altimeter pains of people muting themselves and then muting themselves. Feel free to tweet using the hashtag land dialogues and file live tweeting from land portal and tenure facility Twitter accounts. Finally, in the interest of transparency, I should add that the today's session is being recorded and you will be receiving a link afterwards. I will introduce our expert panel and ask them to talk about their experiences. First of them is Silvana Balovino. She's a lawyer who graduated from the University of Lima with a specialty in environmental law and natural resources from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. She has more than 18 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, designing and implementing public policies and strategies in different aspects related to the environmental issues of Indigenous peoples. With an emphasis on the conservation of biodiversity and the promotion of innovative options for its sustainability. Currently, she is the director of biodiversity and indigenous peoples program of the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, an institution she has worked at since 2006. Then we have Marcio Hala. He leads the territorial governance facility, an economic indigenous governance projects in the, sorry, start that again. Marcio Hala leads the territorial governance facility and economic indigenous governance projects in the island and not for forest strengths communities and territorial governance initiative. Prior to joining forest trends, Marcio was implementing several sustainable development projects, working closely with traditional communities and indigenous peoples in the Atlantic rainforest and Amazon region. Since 1997, he has actively managed projects on natural forestry, organic agriculture, sustainable forest value chains, community-based ecotourism and forest management and certification. He graduated from Sao Paulo State University in agronomy and has a master's degree in territorial planning from Santiago de Compostela University in Spain. Then we have Alexandra Naravais. She's part of the indigenous squad of the I, I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong, I co-found community of Senegal. As an indigenous person, she takes care of the territory alongside her community. She's also president of the Chameco Women's Association, working very hard to achieve the dream of living in a free and unpolluted territory and to leave a legacy for the children. Sorry if I mangled the pronunciation there, Alexandra, of several of your titles. Aztolofo Aramburu is an African-Colombian leader from the Yuru-Mangi River and is part of the process of black communities in Bogota. Aramburu recognizes the importance of law 70 in the recognition of black communities as collective subjects of law and the impetus it has given to the immobilization of organizations in Colombia. It also analyzes how the peace negotiations have affected the black communities. And finally we have Barbara Frazier. Barbara is a freelance journalist based in Lima, Peru. With 20 years of experience in Latin America, she puts a human face on her defects and public policy. She offers research, writing, editing, and photography services with particular expertise in environmental, public health, and social issues. Barbara is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Foreign Press Association of Peru. Okay, now that everyone's introduced, let's start. Alexandra, let's begin with you. Various threats have been presented to indigenous territories in the last few years, from COVID-19 to the award in Ukraine. Can you tell us about the situation within your community, with regards to land rights, and how this has changed in the past few years? Soy defensora y madre, entonces de la naturaleza. Contarles un poco cómo ha cambiado desde que llegó el COVID, desde que llegaron estas enfermedades grandes a nuestros países, a nuestros territorios, ya que nosotros hemos vivido en un territorio sano, en un territorio libre, donde nosotros nos criamos corriendo, bañándonos en el río, sin ninguna amenaza. Ahora, en estos últimos años, estamos amenazados con estas grandes extractivas mineras, petroleras, madereras. Entonces, en este último año mi territorio se ha visto grandemente amenazado por la pesca, por la minería, por la casa, ya que en esa época de COVID, la gente no se podía ir a trabajar, la gente colonna, no sé. Y en esta temporada nuestro territorio ha sufrido grandes destrucciones, en este caso, con la minería, ya que las personas se sentían sin trabajo, cruzaban a nuestro territorio sin nuestro consentimiento, cruzaban a buscar también alimentación, en este caso, envenenando nuestros ríos, poniendo trampas en nuestro territorio para casar. Entonces, nosotros nos sentimos grandemente amenazados, ya que no podíamos salir con esa confianza, ya que no podíamos mandar a nuestros hijos a que se bañen en el río, porque estaban ingresando bastante gente desconocida a nuestro territorio. Ahora, pero también nos sirvió como esta enfermedad también nos sirvió como fortalecernos como comunidad, ya que nosotros nos organizamos para hacer recorridos. Nos organizamos haciendo esta guardia para poder fortalecer, para poder cuidar nuestro territorio, para salir a patrullar, para decirle a la gente que respete nuestro territorio, que en esta crisis las entendemos, pero también queremos que respete nuestra casa, nuestras aguas, que no queremos contaminación en nuestros ríos. Entonces, en estos últimos años se ha sido muy duro para la comunidad, para los territorios indígenas, más que todos, que estamos con grandes amenazas, enfrentar eso. Tenemos que fortalecernos más aprendiendo lo que es comunicación. Teníamos que coger nuestras cámaras de celulares, e ir a tomar esas evidencias, e ir a decir a la gente que no tienen que entrar. Nosotros también como mujeres, como pofanes, nos sentimos gravemente amenazados, ya que nos sentíamos solos, porque el estado mismo también nos quiere robar nuestra casa, nos quiere determinar nuestra casa, diciendo, dando concesiones mineras sin nuestro permiso, sin nuestro consentimiento. Entonces, nos sentimos solos, prácticamente, porque un estado que debe defender nuestros derechos no lo ha hecho, no se ha pronunciado en defensa de nuestros territorios, de nuestros derechos. Entonces, nosotros como pueblo tuvimos que levantarnos con mucha fuerza, creando nuestra guardia, alzando nuestras voces como mujeres, a pesar de los miedos, a pesar de los nervios, aprender a decir que nuestro territorio es nuestra vida y nuestro territorio se tiene que respetar. Nuestro territorio, nuestra madre tierra, tiene que ser respetada. Entonces, por eso ahora nosotros como pueblos indígenas estamos levantando nuestras voces, levantando con muchas fuerzas y decirles a todo el mundo, porque esta problemática no es sólo de los pueblos indígenas, esta problemática de que sin territorio no vamos a poder vivir es de todo el mundo, que nuestro futuro como como pofanes está en peligro, que el futuro como todo el mundo está en peligro, porque si nuestros territorios no va a ver, se va a destruir el mundo, no va a ver un futuro que ofrecer los a nuestros hijos. Entonces, nosotros como mucha fortaleza en defensa de nuestro territorio, en defensa de la vida, en defensa de la madre tierra, que se respete nuestros derechos, que se respete nuestro mundo de vida que tenemos, nuestra autodeterminación, que podamos estar como antes, como nuestros ancestros libres, podamos salir sin miedos, podamos tomar el agua sin miedos, ya que no tenemos estas grandes contaminaciones. Pero aquí estamos y seguimos diciendo que nuestro territorio es nuestra decisión y que el pueblo cofan está aquí para seguir peleando por nuestra vida, por nuestro territorio y por la madre tierra, porque eso depende de nosotros, que se respete nuestra madre tierra y que se respete nuestros derechos como pueblos indígenas, como personas que necesitamos este derecho y decir y también estamos amenazados por el mismo gobierno, ya que donde está el pueblo cofan es reserva, reserva Cayambe Coca donde supuestamente es del gobierno también, pero no lo cuidan, por eso la gente también ingresa nuestro territorio sin nuestro consentimiento, ya que dicen ah es del estado, ingresan sin nuestro permiso, pero nosotros también estamos pidiendo al estado que se reconozca el derecho a tener nuestras propias tierras, a tener un título de propiedad porque eso hace falta, tener un título de propiedad porque para afuera tenemos que tener y demostrar con papeles que ese es nuestro territorio, entonces en esa pelea estamos con el gobierno exigéndole que se respete nuestro derecho y que nos dé el título de propiedad para poder nosotros también con mucha fuerza decir es nuestro territorio, respételo, es la tierra de todos respeten, esos nosotros estamos haciendo como líderes, como comunidad cofan exigiendo al gobierno que se respete nuestros derechos y se respete la vida misma de todos nosotros los seres humanos porque sin la tierra donde vamos a vivir, sin sin nosotros los pueblos indígenas se va a acabar, entonces ese es mi sentir y mi que puedo compartir, muchísimas gracias. Thank you so much, Alexandra. Masio, now we move to you. The war in Ukraine has caused serious disruptions to the global timber trade and these impacts are echo in the Amazon rainforest. The Brazilian government has claimed that allowing mining in the Amazon and subsequently in indigenous territories, Korean, Brazil's dependence on imported fertilizers from countries such as Russia and Belarus. Can you tell us more about this? Yes, of course, Fabio, thank you. Good morning, good morning, good morning. In addition to the four languages that this webinar is being broadcast, I also added Rudan Morhen from the Dutch to speak in the five non-indigenous languages spoken in the Amazon, highlighting the 300 languages, more than 300 indigenous languages spoken in the Amazon, which are part of this incredible social biodiversity that has been historically threatened in more than 500 years of threats that have been faced by indigenous peoples and local communities. We are seeing in recent years these tensions and conflicts being intensified due to the context of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, so the forest borders are extremely conflicted and tense. This scenario of tensions is being extremely aggravated due to the context that we are living here in Brazil, of dismantling institutions, of the rights guarantees. So, unfortunately, it is up to us to go through this dramatic situation in recent years with a government like this one we have at the moment, which works precisely to end these rights guarantees, to fragile the institutions, to destroy all the systems of environmental management and control. So, a government that has already elected itself, affirming that it would not demarcate any indigenous land centimeter and would effectively do what it did, which was this de-structuring of all these systems of environmental management, of participation, of any possibility of consultation and consent of indigenous peoples and traditional communities, something that was already fragile and that became even more difficult, which can be very well pronounced by the speech of a minister, of the environmental minister of this government, who just spoke in a ministerial meeting that the pandemic would be a great opportunity to pass the threshold, in other words, to really do everything that was planned. So, what we see is a recording of a pattern and a reversal in recent times, even before this current government assume that we have seen a decade of significant reduction in the destruction of the Amazon between 2013 and 2012. We saw the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon being reduced to more than six times and from 2016 to 2017, this situation reversed itself with an exponential increase, a constant increase in the destruction, which complicated a lot the lives of the communities and indigenous peoples in this situation of the pandemic, with the aggravation of food insecurity, with a series of uncertainties and difficulties to maintain their way of life. So, this current government comes working intensively with increasing efforts to regulate certain activities in indigenous lands. So, we know how much illegal activities such as the destruction of wood, of garimps, especially gold, diamond, the small garimps, agro-pecuary activities, especially pecuary, the creation of cattle, which is directly associated with the yielding of pastures, the whole context of guerrilla of lands. So, we see projects of law and legislative efforts to try to regulate these things and also regulate the great mining, the hydroelectric exploration of indigenous lands, which is something that is at stake in the constitution, but which has never been regulated and this government is trying, just as the minister said, to pass the ballot. And we have counted with the federal Supreme Court, with the judiciary, at least to be able to erase these efforts, these activities that in any way are being expanded due to the president's speech. When the president says this, regardless of whether it is approved as law or passed in Congress, people involved in these illegal activities feel this as an authorization, as an approval to invade indigenous lands and expand their illegal activities. So, with regard specifically to this issue of fertilizers, it is interesting to talk about this, really, because in 2020 the current government presented a project of law to authorize mining in indigenous lands and in its words, precisely, the war in Ukraine was an opportunity to approve this project of law. So, it was presented a regime of urgency to vote this project of law based on the idea of the importance of potassium for the agribusiness for Brazilian agriculture. 85% of the fertilizers used in Brazil are imported, from Russia, mainly. And then the argument used by the government was this, that it was necessary to explore this potassium, the fertilizers that are in the wells, in the reserves that are in the subsoil of indigenous lands. But in fact, studies show that, in fact, we have, outside of the Amazon, the reserves of potassium are guaranteed until 2089. 78% of these reserves are outside of the Amazon. And from what is inside the Amazon, only 11% are within indigenous lands. This means that, in addition to 2089, if we explore these mines in the Amazon, we could have reserves for more than 11 years, until 2100. And of all this century, practically, only one year of the demand for fertilizers in Brazil would be indigenous lands. But that doesn't matter for these arguments, to be able to use this kind of argument to put in practice this kind of plan, this more or less the context that we are observing. Interesting. Thanks, Marcio. It's interesting because they are using this as an argument to mine indigenous lands. So I have a more specific question about the data that is out there, about how mining is affecting indigenous territories. Can you talk a little bit about that? I've heard Alessandra talking about Ecuador. We know in Peru, in Ecuador, the impact that mining activities, especially related to oil and gas, impact indigenous lands. In the Brazilian Amazon, it's a little different, right? We know that this is not the same reality in the Brazilian Amazon. We have large mining projects that directly impact indigenous lands, but that are outside of these indigenous lands. As I said, it's not authorized, right? It can't be licensed to mining in indigenous lands. But mining outside indigenous lands, and there are many indigenous peoples who live in this context and who end up involved in this conditioning process of the licensing of these mining projects. So this is a reality, but I want to pay more attention to the increase in indigenous lands in Garimpo. So we have data that shows that in 10 years, Garimpo in indigenous lands increased five times, 500%. This Garimpo existed before. It's a reality with which indigenous peoples have been leading for a while. But from 2017 to 2018, this increased tremendously. The structure of the licensing, as I said, were destroyed. With the pandemic, indigenous peoples closed themselves in their territories and in a context of extreme food insecurity, with a series of difficulties and challenges, they also had to face the increase in the invasion of their territories due to the dismantling of the licensing and control structures. In the case of a very emblematic case, and with a lot of repercussions in the whole world, it's the case of the Ianomami, which in three years had the areas of Garimpo, the exploration of Garimpo, tripled. It increased three times in three years, affecting more than half of the Ianomami people. In a gigantic territory, more than half of the Ianomami people were directly impacted. In a similar situation, we can observe in indigenous lands, in indigenous lands of the Munduruku people, in the Tapajós basin, which was even more intense, the increase of Garimpo. And Garimpo, as it happens, the current government, the Bolsonaro government, approved a bill to authorize Garimpo. Small Garimpo in indigenous land. This is a very controversial thing and with a lot of institutional fragility, with regulation. And all this Garimpo happens without any licensing, with the use of mercury, causing serious public health problems of contamination. I live in the Tapajós basin and I contaminated with mercury, eating fish, I became a vegetarian because of that. So it is a critical situation, very serious, that we live with, which we live because of the increase in Garimpo. And this Garimpo happens without any kind of effort, restoration, recovery, reforestation. So, to conclude my answer, I want to highlight that in the last 30 years, more than 1 million hectares of native vegetation from the forest were lost in Brazil. And 1.6% of that was within indigenous lands. So I want to highlight the importance of living modes and the capabilities of governance of their territories that indigenous peoples have and that must be recognized for that. So in this context of climate change, with this great flow of climatic funds happening in the world, it is very important that this is seen as an opportunity to recognize the role of these indigenous peoples and ensure that this indigenous territorial governance can be strengthened. Thank you, Fabio, for all of you. Thanks, Marcio. So just asking all panelists and myself, if we can slow down a little bit, just so the interpreters can catch up. But thank you, Marcio. Astofu, let us go to you. Can you tell us how the territorial rights of Afro-Colombian communities have been affected by the major geopolitical shifts in the last few years? Feel free to add on to what your colleagues have already shared. Colombia had its constitutional rights, its collective rights. So from there, we are talking from 1991 to this date, we would be talking about more or less 30, 31 years of constitutional life and the recognition of important rights for our communities, for our people. With the Constitution of 1991, which is the current Constitution in Colombia, it was recognized for the first time that Colombia recognizes that it is a pluriethnic and multicultural country. It also declares the right to equality. And in that right, it is also consecrated and recognized, let's say, the actions of the supporters, let's say, that they have had an investment story or, let's call it in a specific way, the most vulnerable groups, right? That was achieved in the Constitution of 1991 and in that same Constitution, in a specific and specific way, there was only one article for the black people, which is the Transitorial Article 55. And what I said, this article, is that it gave two years to the government to create a law that recognized the rights of the black communities, that is, the Constitution gives as an opening and it is then, in 1993, two years later, that the Law of Black Communities is indeed created, which is the Law 70. So we are no longer talking about 31 years, but it is from 1993 that we have a law that recognizes our rights, that is, we are already 29 years old, really. And what it has to do with territorial rights, the Law 70 recognizes the land that traditionally, in an ancestral way, has been occupying the black communities and orders that those lands are adjudicated, they are entitled to their occupants. So two years later, in 1995, we have then that that order that remains in the law and there is, let's say, the procedure for the recognition of the lands. It was created then, in this framework, the entire institutional policy that recognizes our lands, just until 1995, we would no longer be talking about 29 years, but 26, 27 years of territorial rights in action. If we continue to discount time, then it turns out that the law was created, the procedure was created in 1995, but it did not have money, it did not have financial resources to start operating, and it is more or less there in 1997 and 1998 that it already starts with a loan with resources from the multilateral bank, is that the policy of the recognition of the territorial rights of the black people begins. So from 1998 to the date, we would be talking about more or less 24 years that we could summarize the advance of the recognition policy, recognition and implementation of the territorial rights of the black people, specifically the recognition of their lands. Even these 24 years we could also, on their way, mention some obstacles, for example, rules that were taken in that period of time, in an unconsulted way, and that the Colombian Constitutional Court had to declare inaccessible, and then those rules could not be applied, what was there was a pause in the time of the implementation of the policy, and all this is mentioned a little to say that we have not really been in the task for more than 20 years, in that legal and political advance of the recognition of our lands. However, nevertheless, we can say that on the Pacific Coast, on the Pacific region of our country, in the United States of Colombia, which is where, most of the time, we have advanced approximately 5.7 million hectares of recognized land for black communities, so we have a significant advance, however, it is also convenient to mention and to remember here that the black people who arrived at the moment in a situation of slavery were located in all the regions of the country, in the Pacific region, which is what I just mentioned, but we are also in the Andean region, of the country, in the Caribbean region, even in the Amazon region, but it is especially from the Pacific where it has advanced, we still have pending that the policy advances in the other regions of the country to the interior where there are still many black communities. And in that sense, let's say, there is the main challenge, matter of title, but to mention a little too that the law 70 not only refers to the rights of access to land, but that, as I mentioned, is the main law of recognition of collective rights and speaks of the environment, of the mining resources, of the ethnic and cultural identity and of their own development. And those other elements that I just mentioned have not advanced in these 20, 30, 31 years, let's say, of the political life of us as black people in Colombia. Thanks, Astolfo. But as a follow-up to this, I would like to know what has been the impact of Francia Marquez being made recently the first Afro-Colombian vice president. Can you tell us more about the opportunities that the shift brings? Perfecto. Well, Francia Marquez is for us, is the mirror of an important part of Colombian society. Right? Francia Marquez is a woman economically impoverished. She is the mother and the head of the family, a woman with a very young pregnancy who had to work in the domestic service to be able to support her family, which is very, but very difficult and almost exceptional. She was a woman who was able to finish her professional studies. Right? She was a discriminated woman who was born, grew up in the peripheries of, let's say, society. And the class of Francia Marquez is a very emblematic case, very beautiful for everything that has happened in Francia's life. However, the case of Francia Marquez is the case of the majority of the people in Colombia. That's why I say that Francia ends up being a mirror for many of Colombian society that is reflected in that reality of Francia. In Francia, the popular sectors of all the cities of Colombia that end up being very poor, right? And in the main cities where the economy of this country has been concentrated, then the periphery ends up being the majority of the population and that periphery, those popular sectors, are still vulnerable sectors, the poor sectors. But also in the countryside, the peasant people are reflected in Francia. The ethnic groups, the indigenous people are reflected in Francia. The blacks are reflected in Francia. The women, the young people, right? Even the people, the LGBTI is reflected in Francia for everything that I just mentioned. So, let's say it there, it's a very beautiful and very interesting case of how the reality of the country is changing, in which for the first time people feel reflected in a government, right? The people of the base, the people of the people. Colombia, yesterday I was just listening to the national news that Colombia occupies the third place within the most corrupt countries in the world. And that corruption that has been historical in our country is the one that has stolen the dreams of our people. It is the one that has not allowed that that progress, that own progress of our cosmology can be given. The resources are always left, they are smoked, they disappear, and they are, let's say, lost and the opportunities do not arrive. El desarrollo que ha llegado en nuestros territorios ha sido un desarrollo de espalda a los intereses de la comunidad ha estado más orientado a proyectos de extracción, de extracción forestal, de extracción de hidrocarburos, de extracción mineras, a proyectos de infraestructura de grandes puertos para la movilización de mercancías. Pero son proyectos totalmente ajenos a los sueños y a las esperanzas y a las proyeciones de las comunidades. ¿Qué tenemos con Francia? Tenemos, por primera vez, la oportunidad de que esos anhelos, de que esas apuestas que siempre han tenido las comunidades de esa visión propia, de esa visión distinta, se vean reflejadas en un modelo de país, es cierto, es primera vez que la izquierda gobierna en Colombia y hay muchas esperanzas. La semana pasada estaba mirando en los Twitter que la vicepresidenta, por primera vez, se reúne la vicepresidencia de la República con las mujeres parteras, la Federación de Mujeres Parteras Afro-Colombianas y me causaba mucha tristeza mirar los comentarios en los Twitter de cómo la gente no valora eso, no entiende eso, porque la única noción que se conoce de la medicina es la medicina occidental y no se valora ese saber propios que tenemos. Menciono solo ese ejemplo para decir este gobierno le está dando visibilidad, le está dando agenda a esas apuestas que nunca han tenido oportunidad y esperamos y estamos trabajando, digamos, para que pueda tener alcance y buenos resultados. Thank you so much, Astofo. Silvana, let's go to you. From the legal perspective, what do you think are some of the challenges but more importantly, the opportunity that exists in the Amazon region right now when it comes to addressing indigenous land rights? Hola, muchas gracias. Soy Silvana Valdovino de Perú. En el contexto mundial y después de la pandemia y en el marco de la guerra hay varios temas que son un reto para el caso de la Amazonía. Básicamente, la pandemia lo que trajo en el Perú fue el incremento de la ilegalidad y de la corrupción. Se volvieron las actividades extractivas ilegales en territorios indígenas ha sido muy fuerte. El incremento del precio de los combustibles, la subida de los metales también es una presión muy fuerte por extraer en recursos naturales lo que constantemente ponen riesgo los territorios indígenas. ¿Cuál es el reto? El reto es seguir consolidando seguridad jurídica de los territorios, seguir otorgando los derechos a los pueblos y también proporcionar herramientas para una gestión y protección de estos territorios. Durante estos últimos años, como repito en el marco de la pandemia, en el marco de todo este contexto mundial, son muchos de los defensores ambientales que han sido asesinados en la Amazonía peruano. En el caso peruano, la mayoría son indígenas básicamente por temas de protección de territorio. Entonces, a nivel legal, lo que corresponde es seguir otorgando derechos, consolidar estos derechos, buscar mecanismos de protección, ayudar en la gestión y monitoreo de estos territorios. Y ya desde una visión más país, el sueño es buscar políticas claras y combatir estas actividades ilegales, estos grandes, este mal que azotaba a Sudamérica actualmente, que es el tema de la corrupción, para todo el esquema de buscar una justicia adecuada. Y también otro gran reto es el del cambio de la visión, la visión extractiva, la visión de que solamente podemos salir de la pobreza o aprovechar los recursos naturales sobre la base de la extracción de los mismos y no en esquemas de manejo sostenibles, que es como cuida noven los pueblos indígenas los territorios. Entonces, los retos son muchos, sobre todo después de habernos golpeado tan fuerte COVID, en el caso peruano, los pueblos indígenas sufrieron muchísimo y un poco por lo que decía Astolfo en su momento, también por el desconocimiento de la interculturalidad de los mecanismos de salud, no teníamos claro cómo implementar estrategias para la protección de salud ha sido muy fuerte el golpe en educación y, como dijo Alexandra, los pueblos mismos cerraron fronteras, comenzaron a protegerse, tratando de evitar estas amenazas. Entonces, nos falta como país tener ya un mecanismo más grande, una visión más estratégica de protección de la Amazonía, de empoderamiento de nuestros pueblos y de dotarlos de mayores herramientas de gestión de territorio. A nivel legal hay mucho que trabajar en el campo y muchísimo más todavía y, como les digo, no los retos siguen siendo bastante grandes, sobre todo ahora que cada día avanza más rápido el esquema de la ilegalidad y los asesina a los defensores ambientales por temas de protección de territorio de pueblos indígenas. Thank you, Giovanna. Let's move to you, Barbara. As we mentioned at the start of the webinar, we would like to spend the bulk of our time today focusing on opportunities and solutions. Barbara, we know that you have an immense amount of solutions, immense amount of solutions reporting expertise in the Amazon. Can you tell us a little bit about how land rights and indigenous people in the Amazon has evolved in the past few years using this solution's journalism lens? Sure, thank you very much first for the invitation and warm greetings, good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all from Lima, Peru where I am based. First, just to clarify what the term solutions journalism means, it basically means examining when writing stories that raise issues that raise problems, examining also the solutions that have been implemented in efforts to address those problems. So it's not just talking about proposed solutions or possible solutions. It looks at actual things that people are doing on the ground and examines what works and why it works, but also what the limitations are and what the problems have been. And it looks for insights into how others might be able to learn from those experiences or implement them. The idea is to spread around, spread the word about, help spread the word about some of these solutions. But I'd like to take a step back and look at the roots of some of the issues that I think need to be examined more closely through this kind of lens. In 2018, I visited the Tigray River in Northern Peru, which is in one of Peru's largest and oldest oil fields and talked to the women there about what they remembered from when the oil companies first arrived in that area in the 1970s. And it was interesting. When I asked men what they remembered, they tended to remember, the answer tended to be, well, the engineers, the oil men came and either they offered us work or they didn't offer us work, depending upon the situation of the community. But when I asked the women, they said things like, I was down at the river washing clothes and these strangers came out of the forest or I was in my home and this strange thing came down from the sky. This helicopter came down from the sky and I was afraid. And then after the oil drilling started, it's the women who gather, who collect the water, who wash the clothes, who wash their children and invade their children in the rivers. And this was a time when Peru did not have environmental legislation. Oil spills just washed down the rivers. They were not contained or cleaned up. The hot, salty produced water that comes out of the well with the oil also just went down the river. And in a little community called Vista Legre, sometime in the 1980s, something happened. I had heard that there was some sort of epidemic that happened. And I wanted to hear the story from one of the women. So I asked about that. And she took us, she took us across the river into the forest where the cemetery used to be. The person who had first told me about this told me that he had gone in the 1890s and had seen many small graves in the cemetery. And when we walked into the forest to where the cemetery used to be because after this event happened, the community moved out of that place, we could feel the little depressions in the earth. And Linda Rachuche, the woman who led us, stopped. She followed a path that we couldn't see into the forest and she stopped beside a very simple grave marker, just a stake, a carved stake in the ground. She put her hand on it and she said, this is my first daughter. And there she told us that there had been a day when the lake that they, where they fished, and where they fished mostly, turned black with oil and oil came down the stream that led from the lake to the river. And sometime after that, the children in the community became ill. They vomited blood and within a day or two, they died. Almost all of the children in that community died in this epidemic that may have, it might have been hepatitis. It's hard to say, it's hard to say what this, this, this many years afterwards, it's hard to say what the effect of the exposure to that pollution would have been. But she told us this story and she put her hand on the marker and she said, this is my first daughter. She would be 35 now. And it still breaks my heart when I think of that because there are, there is this historical trauma in the Amazon region that dates back, probably dates back to the arrival of European settlers. But there have been very, very brutal incidents. The slave trade that Astolfo mentioned, you know, he's, he mentioned the rights of the, the struggle of Afro-Columbians to gain their rights. And the intergenerational trauma of the slave trade is something that really hasn't been examined in Latin America, I don't think. In the Amazon, there's the intergenerational trauma of the genocide and the uprooting of communities from during the rubber boom era. And more recently, the oil industry, the extractive industries, oil, mining, logging, all of these things have multi-generational impacts that really haven't been explored. And they have a lot to do with land rights and they have a lot to do with, with persistent colonial attitudes toward the use of land in the Amazon that's related to the land trafficking that's going on, the land speculation, the mining, the wildcat gold mining, the illegal gold mining. And these newer proposals for a bioeconomy, for example, and an economy based on non-timber forest products or carbon schemes, carbon credits, using offering carbon offsets, especially in indigenous territories. I think a lot of gains have indeed been made. Indigenous people now have a seat at the negotiating table for on the biodiversity convention and on the climate convention. But they also complain that their proposals aren't necessarily being heard, particularly proposals that have to do with land rights and with demarcation of territories. There is a recent study that shows that indigenous lands and, well, there are a lot of studies that show that indigenous territories and protected areas, officially national protected areas or regional parks or whatever, in the Amazon, tend to be better protected than areas outside of them. And so that's definitely a gain. Indigenous people are protecting their territories, continue to protect their territories against encroachment, but the encroachment is constant. And as Silvana mentioned, resisting it can be deadly for the people who are trying to protect their territories. And often these kinds of encroachment of agriculture or of mining or of logging leads to conflicts within the communities because some people in the community might be in favor or might be related to the people who are trying to encroach and others are resisting. So there are a series of gains and losses. There are places where I think there has been progress. There's been progress in free prior and informed consent, for example, but there are also limitations. There's an unevenness in the way that those consent processes are being implemented. So I think all of those are things that need to be examined more carefully, not just by policymakers, but also by the media. I think there's a lot to be looked at in these areas. The carbon schemes in particular are often presented as a way of providing an income to Indigenous communities. And yet there are researchers who are also raising questions about how well the benefits are distributed within the communities and even whether the benefits reach the communities. And Indigenous leaders themselves are divided about those kinds of things. Indigenous leaders also point out that while they are protecting their territories, as well as governments are protecting their protected areas, the protected areas receive an income, receive budget funds. But the Indigenous territories do not because the protection level is the same, but there's no support for that protection. So I think there's a lot of room there to look at what other kinds of protective schemes or what other kinds of financing would be possible for Indigenous territories, for Indigenous people and Afro communities, which are largely in the Colombian Amazon than other parts perhaps. No, Colombia and Brazil certainly. What other kinds of financing mechanisms could make it possible for those communities to help protect their forests? The same with the bioeconomy, that whole Amazon 4.0 proposal now to help communities support themselves with bio-businesses, biobusiness opportunities, using products from their forests, things that could be biopharmaceuticals or foods like acai, for example. But again, these things have, they raise a lot of questions about how well the, how equitably the benefits reach the communities. And even things like acai, which is a great success story. It's the palm fruit from Brazil that became a big export crop. But there are signs that the excessive production, the excessive focus on producing acai has actually changed forest compositions in places where farmers are doing that. So I think there are a lot of questions, there are a lot of places, there are a lot of questions that are being raised. There are a lot of things that are being tried that merit examination through the solutions lens. And I hope more journalists will take the opportunity to do that. And I hope that there will be more reporting grants available for, there are some now, but that there will be more in the future. Because I think with the agreements that came out of the Glasgow Climate Summit, if they are actually implemented, there's going to be a lot of money pouring into some of these projects. And they definitely need to be examined. They need to be examined by scientists, but they also need to be examined by the media. There needs to be an eye on them. And the wild card in all of this for me is organized crime. During the pandemic, criminal activities expanded throughout the Amazon. The illegal mining, the illegal logging, and drug trafficking. They're all related, they're all related to money laundering, and they're all related to corruption in the governments. And that's something that I think needs to be talked about a lot more. It takes a lot of courage for journalists to look at those, because those are extremely dangerous issues to investigate. But unless there is a region-wide effort to attack corruption and attack organized crime, I think in a lot of places it's the local communities that are just going to be caught in the crossfire. And that, I think, is a topic that needs a lot more discussion. Yeah, so those are the things that I would mention sort of at first glance Thanks Barbara. Thanks for this explanation. Alexandra, I want to go to you for us to finish this first part of our conversation. Can you talk a little bit about not only the other opportunities, but what do indigenous communities need right now in order to come out from under these threats? Um, Escuchando a todas las compañeras y nosotros estamos, como había dicho, en primera línea, los que estábamos confrontándonos directamente con estas grandes construcciones mineras, con estas petroleras. En este caso, nosotros también tenemos un proyecto, teníamos un proyecto de estas grandes empresas mineras fuera de nuestra comunidad que no estaba en nuestro territorio, pero que sí afectaba directamente a nuestro río. Entonces, nosotros como afectaba nuestro río, fuimos con mucha fuerza con gracias también a la ayuda de de ONGs, de alianzas Seibo, quien estábamos organizados con cuatro nacionalidades que nos estamos apoyándonos a todas estas comunidades y nos apoyándonos del quien nos ha apoyado directamente son organizaciones que están juntamente trabajando de la mano con nuestro territorio, con otros territorios más que estamos enfrentando estas amenazas. Decir que nosotros que el estado respete nuestros derechos, que respeten nuestros territorios es algo imposible porque nosotros como pueblos indígenas, como territorios, tenemos que salir a luchar y cómo salimos con a las calles tenemos que salir. Tenemos que exigir, tenemos hasta que morir en el paro del 2000, del desde año en junio muchos compañeros murieron enfrentando a este gobierno, enfrentándonos entre hermanos porque por exigir nuestros derechos, que respeten nuestros territorios tenemos nosotros como como pueblos indígenas que morir que nuestras vidas dejen de existir algunas para que un poquito el estado haga caso y se respete nuestros derechos, se respeten nuestros territorios porque nosotros nuestra palabra, nuestra lanza, nuestros bastones de mando son nuestra fuerza, nuestro nuestra fortaleza para seguir adelante, para seguir cuidando nuestro territorio, para seguir cuidando el futuro de nuestros hijos. Nosotros como el estado mismo nos declara que somos grupos subversivos, grupos armados, no es así, nosotros somos un grupo de defensores y defensoras de nuestros territorios, de la selva, porque también la selva tiene derecho, la naturaleza tiene derecho, pero como lo vamos, como ella puede defender el derecho con nosotros, nosotros somos los defensores de nuestros territorios de poder defender el futuro de nuestros hijos. Es muy lamentable que no tengamos apoyo, que el gobierno no nos garanticen nuestros derechos, no nos garanticen nuestras vidas, que tenemos que salir a pelear, pero en este caso dicen también que las reservas tienen su dinero. Nosotros estamos, la reserva, Cayambe-Coca, está en nuestro territorio, pero nosotros no tenemos ningún beneficio de en este caso de apoyo del estado donde puedan decir ustedes están protegiendo, vamos a apoyar con proyectos. No, nosotros no tenemos la guardia misma, la guardia lo hacemos de corazón, porque nosotros queremos dejar un legado a nuestro territorio, a nuestros hijos, nosotros vamos con, sin un sueldo, con estos apoyos de estas grandes, de estas bases, desde territorio, salimos a recorrer nuestro territorio, a vigilar, pero sin apoyo de económico, nosotros lo hacemos de corazón, porque queremos dejar un legado a nuestros hijos. No tenemos el apoyo, hablan de mucho de cambio climático, pero no hay acción, no hay acción a nuestros territorios, no llegan estos grandes apoyos a nuestros, a nuestra comunidad, a nuestros territorios, no llegan, entonces nosotros también como mujeres indígenas, como mujeres cofanes, decimos ¿Cómo vamos a apoyar en esta lucha? ¿Cómo hacemos como mujeres? Entonces se nos puso en la idea de formar el proyecto de turismo, para qué, para decir que como mujeres también podemos cuidar nuestro territorio, podemos demostrar nuestra danza, nuestra cultura, nuestra gastronomía, nuestros lugares sagrados, nuestra gente, cuidar nuestra gente invisible que está ahí en nuestro territorio, en una parte del territorio, que podemos verla, que podemos sentirla, entonces ese es nuestro proyecto como mujeres, como comunidad, como pueblo indígena, de buscar proyectos que puedan ayudarnos también a nosotros a desarrollar, pero no con proyectos de mineros, con proyectos de petróleo, de sacarle sangre a nuestras tierras, de sacarle todo lo que tiene, de consumirla. No, nosotros queremos fortalecer con estas grandes, con estas ONGs que nos han ayudado, ha sido la base también fundamental de que podamos seguir en esa lucha, de poder haber eliminado las 52 concesiones que afectaban, amenazando a nuestro territorio. Entonces nosotros, en este caso, estamos más fortaleciéndonos porque, y nos causa mucha indignación, porque el estado no hay, no hay proyectos que nos beneficia a nosotros sin dañar a nuestro territorio, sin dañar la casa de nosotros. Más bien, poder fortalecernos, yo agradezco a estas dos grandes ONGs que nos han ayudado y a muchos comunicación, de parte de comunicación, de quien nos están aliados con nosotros, de quien puede estar, están contando nuestras historias, la realidad que vivimos en territorio, yo estoy en territorio, yo vivo el día a día aquí, entonces, yo también pido a toda la gente que no entiende, que respete, o que venga y visite nuestro territorio y que pueda palpar, que pueda sentir lo que nosotros sentimos, el miedo que nosotros estamos sintiendo de estas grandes empresas que quieren destruir el futuro de nuestros hijos, que quieren eliminar y solo piensan en dinero. Nosotros queremos que se respeto a nuestro territorio, y se respeto a la madre tierra, porque es de todos. Entonces eso estamos fortaleciendo nosotros como pueblos indígenas, con la guardia, con la ley indígena, con la comunidad unida, porque sí, si es verdad que hay líderes indígenas que están vendidos, pero en este caso, en mi comunidad y nuestro territorio no estamos divididos, estamos unidos porque queremos un futuro para nuestros hijos, queremos sentirnos bien, sentirnos que nos unidos, más que todo, en la base fundamental y la guardia siempre será defensores y defensoras de nuestro territorio. Y sí, hay amenazas también a defensoras de derechos humanos como también está afectada nuestra abogada, Lina María, quien es defensora de nuestro territorio, quien ha estado con nosotros caminando en nuestro territorio, quien ha estado luchando por quitar estas grandes concesiones mineras, quien nos ha ayudado y quien está ayudando a muchos territorios, pero aquí estamos con apoyo hacia ella y también pedirle al Estado que garantice también la vida de la compañera, solo porque ella, muchos están a favor de nosotros, a favor de la vida, a favor de los territorios, a favor de la tierra, los quieren eliminar, pero no, aquí estamos nosotros y muchos indígenas y vamos a luchar por la vida, por la tierra y por todo el mundo, en este caso, por los territorios que aún son el pulmón del mundo. Muchísimas gracias. Thank you, Alexandra. So thank you guys for your participation. Now we are going to move to the questions that the audience has. I'll start with one that there is directed specifically at Astofu. Astofu, the listener is asking how our Afro-Colombian community is organized to assert their land rights in Colombia. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes, of course. With the law of black communities that was mentioned a while ago, the legal and constitutional scenarios were created of participation of the ethnic people. So at the institutional level, for the rights of the Afro-Colombian people, there is representation in the Congress of the Republic. There is representation in the different entities of the regional national order, even local ones, in which they have to deal with access to land, with education, with culture, with the, let's say, the main fundamental rights, human rights, which are established. Additionally, as a movement, we have our own space of articulation of national and regional characters. Let's say that these are the scenarios in which we take the common assumptions and from there we try to do the incidence before the national government. Right? Let's say right now, we are entering a new government and we are demanding, let's say, we have the challenge of maximum possible articulation according to which it can be well represented in the development plan of this government, the assumptions that we have, let's say, as a black community. The scenarios, let's say, the mechanisms of both institutional and autonomous for participation and the protection of our rights, let's say, what is being given and how it works, what we have had for a long time has been the obstacle of the government in the recognition and dialogue of these agendas. Right? In fact, in recent times we have almost not proposed new agendas because what we are demanding is that the agendas and the agreements that have been for a long time when you come back you feel at a table with the national government, product of a mobilization, of a payment or whatever and we come to review the requirements which are the petitions of the community. They are the same that is repeated and repeated and repeated because consecutively they are staying there let's say forgotten, rejected by the national government. So, in conclusion, right now we are articulated in function that the agreements that have historically been fulfilled are fulfilled and that there is, let's say, disposition in political terms but also economic. The agendas also depend on economic resources and we hope, let's say, we are in function also to achieve this. Thank you, Astofo. The next question is directed to all panelists but specifically also to Masiu. So, if Masiu could start by answering then we can hear comments from whatever plan is what to talk or to comment. So, everyone do believe that the growth of market approaches like community business impacting investing, carbon market, et cetera can contribute to strengthening indigenous communities, black communities in other groups in the Amazon. Masiu, if we can start with you. Yes, Fabio. Thank you. Certainly we work a lot in this sense like Forest Trends and in-red with several other support organizations. We have been working a lot just in this sense. Especially as Barbara said regarding the bioeconomy the chains of social biodiversity. We see that there is a gigantic potential and there is a lot of work to be done to be able to strengthen the initiatives of the indigenous communities and peoples to be able to guarantee that the strengthening of these businesses, this approach of business and the commercial alliances, partnerships with the market so that these products can reach the market guarantee just and equitable conditions of negotiation contracts in the long term according to the principles and values of the indigenous communities and peoples. We see that there is a great need to level these relationships with the market by strengthening the own views of the communities and indigenous peoples guaranteeing that these processes strengthen their internal governance based on agreements based on norms that guarantee the access of all these opportunities young women and that guarantee that territorial governance is strengthened we work a lot in this sense and in relation to carbon we see a great importance in relation to this market that is not yet fully consolidated in relation to access and to the recognition of these communities and indigenous peoples that keep the forest on foot We also see the importance of guaranteeing the flow based on public policies based on agreements that guarantee this recognition that is not necessarily with the sale of carbon credits entering directly the carbon market which is, yes, an opportunity for territorial governance but there are also other ways that are the judicial mechanisms as was commented a great a very high value is committed since the COP26 last year and certainly now in Egypt this will be a a focus a reason for great attention how to guarantee that these flows these flows of these billions of dollars can land in the territories can effectively arrive in the territorial organizations that are on the basis as, for example, Alexander's as she said that they need these resources to continue to carry out the control and surveillance of their territory Thanks, Marcio Does anyone want to add anything else to the discussion? Barbara, maybe I know you have some thoughts about this topic, I guess No, I think I think Marcio has talked about some of the issues that need to be looked at and the issue of equity in benefit distribution not just the benefits around reaching the community but the benefits being equitably distributed within the community I know that there are some studies that show that women women continue to be sometimes sidelined from the benefits of some of these things and I think it's really important to remember that one size does not fit all and that Indigenous communities are not monoliths Indigenous communities and Afro communities in the Amazon are not homogeneous People tend to think of the Indigenous perspective on something or the Indigenous way of doing something and while there are common Cosmovisions there are differences of opinion among among within these traditional communities just as there are differences of opinion anywhere and I think it's really important to be careful that these kinds of projects don't end up dividing communities that are already having internal might already be having internal tensions so I think that's that's definitely something and another thing that I didn't mention that that would possibly fit into this is also we haven't really talked about how actors from outside the region can influence what's going on in the region and there's there's increasing attention to supply chains for example and how consumers in the U.S. or in Europe can influence influence events on the ground in the in the Amazon by what they choose to purchase or what they you know and or how they insist to suppliers that they that they make their supply chains chains transparent so I think there's a lot to be that a lot that can be done in that area too that can also help communities on the ground in the Amazon resist some of these these outside these outside influences I think you know I think this I think the whole issue of responsible responsible consumption is something that requires you know further further attention to whether that's you know how well these carbon offsets are really working or where your where your coffee comes from or where your where your cocoa comes from or whatever I think there's a lot more that could be done in that area to raise consumer awareness and get consumers to you know to put some pressure on companies that can then have a positive impact on local communities Thanks Barbara now we have a question for all panelists it's something specific that I feel like Alexander can talk a little bit about the question is how many acts and rules have changed during the pandemic situation in the interest of mining companies does anyone want to pick that up Alexander maybe you should frozen I'm sorry I didn't hear the question well can you repeat it sure the question is how many acts and rules have changed during the pandemic situation in the interest of mining companies how have they changed because we as a community we have put our let's say our guardia our rule that the guardia is always on the way always saying to these miners small scale large scale that our territories are respected and always the presence of the guardia in our territory has minimized totally this income of these of these miners to our territory without our consent without our permission then it has worked our self determination to create our own government it's not a a a form of of being able to defend our territory then always the guardia has been there always you know these these small miners or large large miners that the guardia is always there and that our rules are respected that our territory is respected and that our rights are respected has minimized yes but not not much that there is some there are many projects also that that it is said that they are going to be given but we are watchers of our territory we are we are going to be always always as guards as a community defending our territory and saying that our territory and life is respected also a little to add of of these of these projects that are benefited benefited of directly in the community is very a lot it is very important that that if there are benefits it reaches our as a partner said to the organizations of base for because we are also there we are strengthened as a community as women strengthening of women the leadership strengthening of our struggles guards then it is a very big support for us in this case that there are projects that benefit our territories to our life and strengthen continue to strengthen also to our children who are the basis and the future of life thank you very much thank you let's go to Marcio and then to Astopo yes I thank you I see that in the case of the Brazilian Amazon it is very clear this this context of the pandemic as I mentioned before it was seen as an opportunity for the current government that has this commitment to flexibilize to weaken the entire system of command control and environmental licensing everything was dismantled right so there are studies that show that for example the environmental fines were reduced in more than 70% were in this period were compiled more than 50 more than 50 legal devices precisely flexibilizing the licensing authorizations and flexibilizations of several natures one of them extremely serious is the one I mentioned before right related to Algarim in indigenous lands but we can also quote in direct relation this matter of mining the great amount of agrotoxics pesticides that were that have been released by this government there is a there is a very well organized strategy a systematic for an authorization is of is very large for a total flexibilization of the rules and rules related to authorization of and use of agrotoxics in Brazil agrotoxics historically prohibited in other parts of the world that are being more and more released here right so that is the Brazilian people being contaminated being poisoned in a systematic way in addition to that mercury situation that I mentioned before that has a direct relation precisely with this agrotoxics activity sorry I spoke quickly again no problem Astofo that's here from you now Astofo can you hear me? yes yes no it's you raised your hand do you want to reply to the question the question specifically was how many agrotoxics and rules have changed during the pandemic situation in the interest of mining companies? okay yes yes I was carefully waiting for the measure to happen what what evidently is demonstrable is of easy identification is that with the pandemic well effectively it was reduced the economic capacity the income of everyone that includes the income of the nation and in a state like ours in Colombia where most of the economic bet is concentrated on the extraction of the mining resources the extraction of the resources and well immediately it is giving access again to the economic reactivation the bet that that makes the Colombian state is to say we are going to strengthen the mining industry we are going to accelerate the mining production as an alternative of economic reactivation to recover let's say the economy of the country and that because it has some implications in in the environmental issues in the issues of human rights because it recruits them and let's say it makes them more and more difficult to accelerate that economic policy let's say contrary to what the government does not do and did not look is that the the economy let's say also of many rural families is given to mining but the artisanal mining the ancestral mining that not only practice the blacks but also the indigenous and the peasants in Colombia and that mining that also indeed because it was affected in the mark of the pandemic is so it was not prioritized by the national government so what it generates is a gap increasingly between the economic possibilities that it has that it can get a sector of the population true versus the economic possibilities that accelerate in the macro in the in the mega mining let's say and how do they accelerate the finances of the companies is destroyed in the middle of the environment and let's say the collective rights human rights of the populations that precisely have disputes with these mining projects thank you thank you so much everyone for your time and thank you to the panelists we're going to be wrapping up here please note that today's webinar was the third of four this year series the last and final in dialogue for this year will take place in early December and we will share more information with you shortly finally thank to the teams from the Lane Porto and the Tenure Facility for their for their organization have a nice morning, afternoon or evening whatever you are thank you so much gracias muchas gracias