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Gaia Amazonas

Bogotá, Colombia
Joined December 2016
Presence in: Colombia

Gaia Amazonas is committed to the protection of biological and cultural diversity, and the future of the Amazon rainforest. Since 1990, they have worked hand in hand with Indigenous communities of the Northwest Amazon for the recognition of their rights, territories, and local governance systems, as the most viable and dignified strategy for forest conservation.

As a result of their efforts, Colombia now has the largest continuous indigenous territory in the world, with 26 million hectares of Amazon forest legally recognized as Indigenous territories.

Gaia Amazonas’ community-based work in the Colombian Amazon has empowered and enabled 26,000 indigenous people belonging to 100 communities to establish inter-cultural education and health programs, and to exercise local governance over their territories through setting up their own indigenous organizations, known as AATIs – associations of indigenous traditional authorities. It is a unique model of shared responsibility for protecting the Amazon rainforest.


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Consolidar en manos de los indígenas amazónicos la administración y conservación de estos territorios de acuerdo con sus derechos consagrados en convenios internacionales y en el marco constitucional y legal colombiano.