Brazil’s Supreme Court reached a majority decision to reject Marco Temporal, a pernicious legal argument that translates as a “Time Limit” on Indigenous peoples’ land rights. As the results were announced, Indigenous communities around Brazil erupted into celebration, filling the central plazas of state capitals with music and dancing.
The longstanding struggle for justice for the widows and families of the murdered Saweto activists remains unfulfilled. In February, the culprits behind the murder of four Indigenous leaders from the Alto Tamaya-Saweto community had been sentenced to 28 years in prison. Then last month, in an unexpected twist, the Peruvian court reversed this decision and threw out the charges to order a reassessment of the legal process.
On August 20, the people of Ecuador made history by voting to protect Yasuní National Park from oil drilling.
When ordinary people have the strength and the courage to make their voices heard, they can enact real change on seemingly intractable issues. Through direct democracy, the people of Ecuador have been able to take on the power of big oil, and secure an astonishing victory for the future of the Amazon.
The Marco Temporal thesis is the greatest threat to the rights and lives of Indigenous peoples in Brazil today. But the potential impacts are not limited to these communities—they are universal. Our shared future depends on the health of the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest and one of the major contributors to the climate’s maintenance. As the primary and best guardians of the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous peoples and their lands play a crucial role in mitigating climate change.
Indigenous women from rainforests around the world are uniting to fight for the health of the planet in their unique and powerful ways. Whether as activists, politicians, or mothers, they are bringing back ancestral knowledge and are determined to fight for their communities and the Earth.
Rainforest Foundation US has partnered with the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB) to support the expansion of the Mesoamerican Leadership School, a youth leadership development program in Mexico and Central America.
As the year comes to a close we’re looking back at all of the amazing things we’ve accomplished in 2022, together! Check out our Year in Review.
As our rainforest protection program scales up throughout the region, a chance for exponential gains.
Read the story of Diana Ríos, daughter of indigenous environmental activist Jorge Ríos Pérez, who has followed in her father’s footsteps.
As the year comes to a close, RFUS takes stock of the progress, victories, and lessons we learned in 2021.
New research shows indigenous peoples and local communities live on at least 3.75 million square miles of land spanning most of the world’s endangered tropical forests—yet have legal rights to less than half of these lands.
To blunt climate change, Guyana has pledged to aggressively expand the amount of rainforests protected within its borders. But as the threat of big oil looms, indigenous peoples’ land rights need to be recognized in order to meet this goal.
Get updates on our recent work and victories, stories from our Indigenous partners, and learn how you can get involved.
Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
gro.y1696118214nffr@1696118214sreve1696118214dd1696118214
Didier has been coordinating the USAID-funded B’atz project since joining Rainforest Foundation US in April 2022. He holds a Master’s in Applied Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Geography. Before joining the organization, Didier worked for 12 years in Central and South America on issues of transparency, legality, governance, and managing stakeholders’ processes in the environmental sector. Prior to that he worked on similar issues in Central Africa. He speaks French, Spanish, and English, and is based in Guatemala.
