---
title: Rainfores protection GAIA project Colombia
---

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# Rainforest protection through indigenous-led governance and stewardship in the Eastern Colombian Amazon

| **Implementing partner: **Fundación GAIA Amazonas   |
| --- |
| ** Consortium Partners: Etnollano Foundation** |
| ** Implementation period: **December 2022 - August 2023 |
| ** Sector: **Just Rural Transition |

    

Colombia is committed to international agreements and has a strategy in place to fight deforestation. However, many policies and court decisions are not being implemented in practice. Between 2020 and 2021, deforestation increased by 1.5%, rising from 171,685 hectares in 2020 to 174,103 hectares in 2021.

 

The Amazon region accounts for 64.8% of national deforestation. If this continues in the hotspots of the Western Amazon, it won't be long before the connectivity of the rainforest between Colombia's large national parks and several indigenous territories is broken. This is likely to lead to land-grabbing and deforestation in the large indigenous territories further east.

Forests are best preserved by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) using their traditional knowledge and management systems. In Colombia, 53.4% of the standing forests are located in ethnic minorities' territories, with 46% of these belonging to indigenous reservations. 

The project aimed to strengthen the capacity of 5 Indigenous Councils (IC) to request their official recognition as Indigenous Local Governments and prepare 9 ICs to fulfill legal requirements, considering a GEDSI approach and Indigenous Peoples' ownership to secure the process's legitimacy in order to protect 10 million hectares of standing forest.

This project contributed to advancing the consolidation of indigenous governments by implementing activities that allowed these governments to deepen the analysis and formulation of their life plans and their components: administrative structures, strengthening plans, and facilitating conditions to enhance the political participation of women in their territorial processes.

## * "The working alliance between the indigenous peoples and governments, the Government of the UK and GAIA Amazonas, has made it possible to advance decisively in the consolidation of the Indigenous Territorial Entities, as an effective measure for the protection of the Amazon and the mitigation of the effects of climate change."*

*Camilo Guio Rodríguez, Operational Director, GAIA Amazonas Foundation*

 

![Project photos LATAM-57-GAIA Amazonas - Colombia project](https://www.ukpact.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Project%20photos%20LATAM-57-GAIA%20Amazonas%20-%20Colombia%20project.png?width=1200&height=675&name=Project%20photos%20LATAM-57-GAIA%20Amazonas%20-%20Colombia%20project.png)

 

#  Main results

# ** ——**

- Indigenous Territories completed all the requirements to request their formalisation as Indigenous territories Entities, that is: Lower Caqueta River, Miriti Parana, Yaigoje Apaporis, Tiquie River, and Atabapo and Inirida Rivers.
- Women identified their political advancements and reviewed and enriched the policy guidelines prioritised for their territories, especially those regarding environmental management, local economy, community welfare and food sovereignty. During workshops women also contributed to the formulation of their governments organisational and administrative instruments. (More than 1,000 women participated).

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- Activities such as workshops and territorial tours, allowed all the local governments to update their Life Plans, including their public policy guidelines, as well as their administrative structures and institutional strengthening plans.

### About UK PACT

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) is a unique capacity-building programme. Jointly governed and funded by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) through the UK's International Climate Finance, it works in partnership with countries with high emissions reduction potential to support them to implement and increase their ambitions for tackling climate change.

 

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