Guyana at a Turning Point
With the discovery of a massive offshore oil field, Guyana is on the cusp of a major oil boom. Will Guyana avoid the “resource curse?”
With the discovery of a massive offshore oil field, Guyana is on the cusp of a major oil boom. Will Guyana avoid the “resource curse?”
A video message from a community in Menkragnoti Territory calling for solidarity in the fight against deforestation.
RFUS explains why the Amazon is burning, and what we and our indigenous partners are doing about it.
Three of RFUS’s partner organizations won the UN Equator Prize for innovative forest protection and development strategies.
A spotlight on Rainforest Foundation US’s Carlos Doviaza, indigenouso Embera cartographer, and other defenders of Panama’s Darien rainforests
The Naso People of Panama have been fighting for legal recognition of their territory for more than 50 years. On February 20, 2019, the National Assembly of Panama officially recognized their lands. But will the President ratify the decision?
With the election of Jair Bolsonaro, the consequences for Brazil’s environment look bleak. But indigenous peoples are leading by example.
The National Coordination of Indigenous Peoples of Panama (COONAPIP) has been engaged in a decades-long battle with Panama’s Ministry of the Environment to secure land rights for ancestral forests. Read about this fight, and the renewed push for recognition by COONAPIP.
Fortress conservation is a standard method of protection for old-growth forests. This practice forbids any and all human interference with the land. Read how this idea, while good on paper, has troubling implications for indigenous populations.
The government of Guyana has an international commitment to conserving an additional 2 million hectares of forest. Formally recognizing indigenous collective lands could be the solution.
Far from Georgetown or other large settlements, the villages’ lands had been largely untouched by outside forces. Yet the geographical remoteness which had previously sheltered these communities is ending as new infrastructure makes it easier to access this region, putting its native populations in danger.
After hundreds of indigenous representatives and their allies blocked the entrances to Panama’s Ministry of the Environment, the director of MiAmbiente sat down to negotiate land rights petitions.
Will you listen?
Any amount makes a difference.
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Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
gro.y1714083940nffr@1714083940sreve1714083940dd1714083940
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.