Acres of rainforests monitored in collaboration with Indigenous-led programs
Indigenous and Local Communities served in the Amazon and Central America
Acres of traditional lands in Guyana protected with conservation plans
Our Indigenous partners are unable to protect their territory from the devastating impacts of illegal logging and mining activities without legal land ownership. Studies have shown that Indigenous peoples who hold title to their lands are the most effective guardians and stewards of the forest—titled lands show a 66% decrease in deforestation important in the fight to slow climate change.
The Gamboa community in Peru—a part of our Rainforest Alert program—received 17 land titles in record time through a low cost, high impact model developed in partnership with Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) and the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). 20 more are in progress for a total of 37 land titles. With our support, communities received the titles in 10 months, a process that normally takes 10 years. And for the first time, Indigenous partners had a seat at the table during these important negotiations.
This bottom up approach is one that AIDESEP—in partnership with RFUS—hopes to repeat in communities throughout the Peruvian Amazon.
RFUS organized two “Tech Camps” with our partners to share knowledge and provide training to advance forest monitoring, an important part of our Indigenous partners’ work in protecting rainforests. Seventy participants, including Indigenous partners from the Amazon Basin, US organizations, government officials, and academics came together to discuss successful projects from their respective geographies and showcase four new technologies that can be used by Indigenous partners to protect their rainforests.
Two of the technologies featured were especially exciting:
Both technologies will allow our Indigenous partners to improve monitoring and protection of their lands and forests.
With strategic guidance and financial support from RFUS, our partners at the South Rupununi District Council in southwestern Guyana launched a pilot program to train a team of 10 community paralegals. These Indigenous paralegals—experts in the local context and culture—serve as grassroots legal advocates who know, use, and shape the law to defend their rights. These paralegals fill a vital role in providing legal access to Indigenous communities in remote regions whose interests are often most impacted by decisions made by government officials, but who aren’t often consulted in the decision making process. Specifically, the 10 trained paralegals rotate through 21 communities to build community capacity on legal issues, including the Amerindian Act law reform and community engagement on carbon markets.
We have expanded our programming in Brazil to focus on territorial defense, Indigenous governance, and territorial control through community-led forest patrolling. Learn more about our recent visit to Brazil, where we strengthened ties with partners in Roraima, including the Indigenous Council of Roraima’s (CIR), Hutukara – Yanomami Association, Seduume, and Wai-Wai organizations.
After ten long years, justice was served on Thursday, April 11, for the victims of the emblematic Saweto case in the Ucayali region of Peru. The Court sentenced the five accused to 28 years and three months of imprisonment for the crimes against Ashéninka community leaders from Alto Tamaya – Saweto: Edwin Chota Valera, Jorge Ríos Pérez, Francisco Pinedo Ramírez, and Leoncio Quintisima Meléndez, who were brutally murdered on September 1, 2014.
The voluntary carbon market is quickly evolving and being introduced in new territories, making it challenging to sort out who’s who and what the implications are for impacted communities. To support Indigenous communities and local communities to better understand carbon markets, Rainforest Foundation US has launched the first three videos of a six-part animated series to demystify the market and provide communities with the essential information to protect their rights.
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Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
gro.y1714229299nffr@1714229299sreve1714229299dd1714229299
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.
