Shifting the Paradigm: an effective and innovative alliance with the indigenous peoples towards the Amazon’s conservation and sustainable development

Background:
The Amazon Basin hosts the largest remaining contiguous rainforest and it is home to approximately 349 Indigenous Peoples (ethnic groups). However massive conversion of forest land to agricultural land, hydrocarbon mega projects and other major developments are threatening the amazon ecosystem. Local organisations and indigenous communities need to have the right tools to voice their opinion in development discussions.   

WWF-Norway with financial support from Norad has been supporting WWF-Peru and regional indigenous organisations through the “Environment Movements in the South (EMIS)” initiative from January 2008 to December 2010. The project was then extended with two additional phases until December 2012. At the end of this period, a final evaluation of the project from 2008 to 2012 was undertaken to assess its impact and compile the lessons learned.    

Purpose/objective:
Since 2008, WWF-Peru through the EMIS programme has helped regional Indigenous People’s organisation COICA, and its 9 member organizations representing each a country in the amazon basin, to become key players in the discussions on development for the Amazon. The third and final phase of the project aimed at ensuring that COICA and its member organizations proposed tangible solutions for indigenous people in the Climate Change, Energy and Extractive discussions at regional and international levels.

Methodology:
The objective of the evaluation was to objectively and systematically review the design, implementation and results of the project. The methodology used was a combination of analysis performed through documentation (reports, annexes), and semi-structured interviews with strategic partners (COICA), executors (WWF network) and other COICA partners, who have been involved in the project in different ways.

Key findings:
Overall, the project has reached its objective which was to reinforce the institutional, organisational and technical capacity of COICA and its 9 member organisations. The main results of this are listed below:
• COICA became a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and presented a paper on the “Recognition of indigenous territories as Conservation spaces” at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2012, in Korea;
• COICA and its 9 partner organisations are recognised as key political and technical actors by being invited as indigenous representatives in regional and international debates and discussions (e.g. UNFCCC COP 17 and 18);
• First Amazonian indigenous people’s roundtable for environment and climate change in Columbia and submission of a technical proposal for public policies for indigenous peoples in the Colombian Amazon;
• Threats ranking analysis in the Amazon and Preparation of a three-year strategic plan for COICA;
• Document on Indigenous Territorial Management in Peru developed;
• Preparation of the Indigenous REDD+ proposal and presentation at the UNFCCC COP 17 and COP18;
• Preparation of “A new development in favour of the conservation of indigenous territories in the Amazonian basin based on the Yasuní-ITT Initiative”.

Recommendations:
The approach adopted with COICA is adequate to address the problem and can be replicated. What should be strengthened is the participation and action of each National member organization to achieve concrete results in their territories such as REDD+, Yasuní, and that these be evaluated or adjusted depending on their contexts.

Comments from the organisation, if any:
Although the evaluator has done a good job in highlighting the main achievements and challenges of this project, the evaluation itself was done late and this did not allow the necessary time for in depth interviews, field visits and analysis. WWF-Norway would have liked to see a more detailed analysis on the barriers obstructing the REDD+ process in the amazon, and how COICA with its 9 national indigenous NGOs partners can work closer together to adopt the appropriate policies for indigenous people in the Amazon.

WWF-Norway is pleased with the results achieved by this project. COICA has managed to coordinate inputs from 9 National indigenous organisations and prepare important technical documents such as the Indigenous REDD+ proposal for the Amazon. These proposals and recommendations were presented by COICA itself at COP 17 and COP 18 with the financial and technical support from WWF. However, because WWF-Norway’s 2012-2016 now focuses mainly on Africa, work in South America has been phased out.