NiaTero - 2020 Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 22
AMAZONIA
Our Amazonia strategy strives to work in support of
more than 48 Indigenous communities who maintain
guardianship of 60 million hectares of thriving forest
landscape—almost 150 million acres, a little smaller than
the state of California—by exercising territorial rights
and asserting their autonomy
and wellbeing. To achieve this
goal, with the guidance of our
regional advisors, we’re supporting
Indigenous peoples in Northern
Brazil, Southern Suriname, Western
Guyana, and Eastern Colombia.
In 2020 we contributed
to the implementation and
strengthening of Indigenous
peoples’ self-determined vision
for guardianship. This included
the support of organizations,
such as Apitikaxi and Apiwa in the
Tumucumaque Indigenous Land, to implement actions
protecting their territories, strengthen their governance,
fortify their communications, and maintain cultural
continuity and intergenerational exchange. Our work also
involved assisting Indigenous organizations committed to
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REGIONS - AMAZONIA
ensuring the survival of their uncontacted relatives, such
as the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley
(UNIVAJA), an Indigenous territory the size of Austria
with the highest concentration of Indigenous peoples in
voluntary isolation.
Nia Tero supported a coalition
of national and local Indigenous
lawyers who made history in 2020,
presenting several cases in federal
courts to protect isolated peoples. In
one case, the Articulation of Brazilian
Indigenous Peoples (APIB) made an
unprecedented—and successful—
direct petition to the Supreme Court.
This petition compelled government
agencies to implement measures to
protect tribes in voluntary isolation
from COVID-19, and to implement
actions to respond to Indigenous
peoples’ health needs during the pandemic. This is of
great significance, in the recognition of APIB as the first
Indigenous organization that can make direct petitions to
the Supreme Court.
In Amazonia, we’ve contributed to Indigenous peoples’
NIA TERO - THRIVING PEOPLES. THRIVING PLACES.
