In recent weeks, indigenous representatives from 90 organizations from across the Amazon Basin unanimously approved a new action plan that calls for a pan-Amazonian "consolidation" for the survival of ancestral knowledge and the protection of forests, water, biodiversity and the climate. The action plan, titled, "The Manaus Mandate: Indigenous Action for Life" is the end result of the First Regional Amazonian Summit [2], which took place in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, from August 15-18. The four-day summit, organized by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations in the Amazon Basin (COICA [3]), brought together representatives of indigenous peoples from all nine Amazonian countries, as well as government representatives, international organizations and members of civil society from across the Amazon Basin.
A wide range of issues were explored at the summit including the COP 17 [4] summit on climate change [5], to be held in December 2011 in Durban, South Africa; the adequacy of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [6]; and the implementation of the International Labor Organization Convention 169 [7]. Participating organizations included CIDOB [8] (Bolivia), COIAB [9] (Brazil), CONFENIAE [10] (Ecuador), OPIAC [11] (Colombia), APA [12] (Guyana), FOAG [13] (French Guiana ), AIDESEP [14] (Peru), ORPIA [15] (Venezuela) and OIS [16] (Suriname). The summit's declaration is on the COICA website as a PDF [17] (Spanish version). (Intercontinental Cry [18], Sept. 18)
See our last posts on Brazil [19] and the struggle for the Amazon [20].
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