Success Stories from the Field: The Colombian Amazon – Where Indigenous Land Rights and Conservation Thrive

This fall, Andes Amazon Fund Program Officer Peter Oesterling participated in the first “Intercultural Dialogue” event hosted by the Gaia Amazonas Foundation, which convened leaders from various Indigenous reserves across the Colombian Amazon. Many of these leaders represented reserves supported by AAF either through its own grantmaking or in alliance with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This support comes in many forms, ranging from initial land titling of Indigenous reserves and expanding existing reserves, to strengthening territorial governance systems and mechanisms for self-determination. Each of these layers of support contributes to Indigenous Peoples’ ability to effectively protect their ancestral territories, which house some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.

The event also convened numerous key representatives from the Colombian government such as Jhenifer Mojica, the Minister of Agriculture, and Astolfo Aramburo, Subdirector of Ethnic Matters of the National Land Agency, as well as leaders from the Colombian Land Restitution Unit, Congress, and the Agustín Codazzi Geographic Institute. In addition, leaders from Colombia’s National Organization of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples (OPIAC) participated, along with AAF partners and allies from the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Re:wild, and the Norwegian Embassy.

The goal of the meeting was to jointly construct a vision that guides the design and implementation of Colombia’s Agrarian Land Reform which responds to the context of the Colombian Amazon and the Indigenous Peoples that live there. Held within the government’s plan for land reform under the Gustavo Petro administration is the ambitious goal of formalizing up to seven million hectares of undesignated lands through collective titling, largely for the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples. While the concept of land reform may be viewed as delegating who has property rights to what, the movement in the Colombian Amazon to reach this goal goes well beyond property. It implies that through recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands and forests, the Colombian government is safeguarding the expression of grassroots movements that strengthen Indigenous self-governance systems where a core tenet and principal value is environmental conservation.

The Intercultural Dialogue celebrated an important victory along the way to fulfilling the promise of land reform, which was the expansion of the La Libertad Indigenous Reserve, achieved with the support of the Gaia Amazonas Foundation and the Andes Amazon Fund. La Libertad’s expansion was more than a symbolic achievement. Its momentous timing helped lay the groundwork for an edict for land reform in Indigenous territories to be released by the Ministry of Agriculture as a result of the Intercultural Dialogue. The edict laid out the government’s commitment to formalize Indigenous lands to strengthen the governance and biocultural connectivity of the Colombian Amazon. The expansion of La Libertad and the Intercultural Dialogue therefore represent an important step that generated momentum towards a greater goal for Indigenous Peoples and the ecosystems they protect in Colombia, one that the Andes Amazon Fund is committed to helping make a reality.