After a decade, a meeting of the cross-border network Canoa (Cooperation and Alliance in the Northwest Amazon) took place in the Upper Rio Tiquié, in Amazonas
The Tiquié River has its headwaters in the Chavascais region called Ewura, in Colombia, where there are some of the sources of two of the largest rivers in the Amazon basin - the Negro and the Japurá. The forest that borders the upper course of the river is vigorous, drained by fresh, clean water courses - these are landscapes managed for generations by Bará and Tuyuka indigenous communities.
About fifty kilometers from its sources, the Tiquié crosses the border and continues into Brazil, always protected by indigenous communities until its mouth at Uaupés. This is one of the most populated rivers in the region, inhabited by Tukano and Nadahupy speaking populations. There are around 5 thousand indigenous people living in the basin of this river, which is just over 450 kilometers long.
In this territory, meetings involving indigenous communities and associations, and non-indigenous partners, on both sides of the border, called Canoitas, took place frequently between 2005 and 2014, having been interrupted due to national political circumstances and other priorities of local processes in each country. .
During that period, the first phase of Canoitas, there were exchanges of experiences and exchanges on projects and initiatives that were developed in the fields of community school education, environmental management, mapping of territories, indigenous and intercultural research, as well as themes related to women (agriculture and food safety, care and protection practices), circulating knowledge among its participants, encouraging and inspiring local discussions in each association.
At the reunion, between May 16th and 20th, people who participated in past exchanges came together, but also young leaders bringing new ideas, with the aim of jointly building current transboundary strategies to strengthen sustainable management in the Tiquié River Basin.
Around 130 people from more than 25 communities - from Brazil, coming from thirteen - gathered in Bellavista, on the Abiu stream, a tributary of the Alto Tiquié, as well as teams from the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro (FOIRN) and the Instituto Socioambiental ( ISA); from Colombia, an equivalent number, as well as the partners of Fundación Gaia Amazonas (FGA).
Ten years later
During this period of ten years without meetings, many things changed, and everyone wanted to understand the situation on the other side of the border. On the Brazilian side, Territorial and Environmental Management Plans (PGTAs) for Indigenous Lands and FOIRN coordinators were developed; subsequently, the consultation protocols, work that mobilized great efforts and participation from the organized indigenous movement for five years.
The Tiquié River AIMAs, who were present in force, worked on data collection and discussions to prepare the PGTAs, but also continued their research on annual cycles and good management practices, in years in which climate extremes were repeated, such as predicted in climate change models.
Read also
Connoisseurs of the Amazon
Dialogue between science and indigenous knowledge in the Upper Rio Negro
Memorables: resistance, strategies and indigenous knowledge in the fight against Covid-19 in Rio Negro
The AIMAs network, although impacted by the pandemic, also acted to value indigenous knowledge in its fight against it, through meetings of knowledgeable people, ritual protections and medicines made with plants.
There was great interest among Brazilian participants in learning about the process of establishing self-government in the Tiquié territory on the Colombian side. They explained that, as of Decree Law 632, of April 2018, indigenous territories were recognized with the right to function as political-administrative entities. These indigenous territorial entities (ETIs), once formed, will be able to exercise public power with autonomy and self-determination, "in accordance with cultural principles and foundations, in order to achieve the well-being of their inhabitants. The main objective is to keep alive traditional knowledge, culture and traditions of ethnic groups; and protect and care for all inhabitants and the territory".
Whereas, in Brazil, indigenous associations are non-governmental organizations, participating in civil society; on the Colombian side, they are constituting themselves as government entities, part of the political-administrative structure of the Colombian state, receiving public budgetary resources. This process, however, has not yet been completed. They are currently in a phase that they call “intercultural dialogue”.
In the case of Tiquié, the indigenous government includes three instances: the traditional, formed by knowledgeable people; the community one, made up of the community captains; and the territorial. In the latter, the main instance is the Council Indigenous, made up of traditional authorities and knowledge and women leaders.
Operationally, there is the legal representative of the Council Indigenous. He coordinates the Executive Committee (formed by a secretariat, a fiscal sector and a treasury) and a set of secretariats (for women, health, education, territory and environment, food sovereignty and youth). This general organizational chart was presented and those responsible for each sector made their presentation.
Jorge Gonzales (FGA advisor for the Tiquié Territory) explained that the process of recognizing the government of the indigenous territory began with the 2018 law, but much had happened before – starting with the 1991 Constitution, in 1993 the decree that formalized the AATIs (Associations of Traditional Indigenous Authorities), but there continued to be a gap.
The struggle of indigenous peoples, not only in the Amazon, but the entire indigenous movement in Colombia, persisted. When this 2018 decree appears, the territory of Tiquié decides to implement it, as adherence is voluntary. The decree is aimed at three departments (in the country) where there are non-municipalized areas; Before the decree, these areas had the option of joining a municipality or becoming a municipality, but with the decree this other, more integral and autonomous option emerged – the Indigenous Territorial Entity.
O life plan, Council Indigenous people as the highest government authority, with their legal representative, as well as the Monitoring Committee, the secretariats, were requirements to form a territorial entity. Currently, the demand has already been formalized with the Ministry of the Interior, all documents regarding the jurisdiction where the government will exercise its functions have been delivered.
According to Jorge, “we are now in this dialogue process, it has not been easy, the Colombian government does not have the initiative, it only moves based on legal measures. Now in June a delegation will come from the Colombian government, the Ministry, the National Tierras Agency, National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).”
José Maria Sanchez, from COITERT, clarifies that intercultural dialogue with the government is carried out in a coordinated manner, at the macro-territorial level, where we, as the indigenous governments of Apapóris, Mitiri, Pira-Paraná and Tiquié, act together in any difficulty at the national level that do not favor us. We will start to function as a territorial government when they sign the intercultural agreement with the national State, when the documents are validated, verifying the data we send – such as population, jurisdiction, etc.”
Integrated Management Plan
The last part of Canoita was dedicated to planning joint activities, more than that, there was an understanding of the need to think about an integrated management plan for the Tiquié River Basin, considering its transboundary scope. This is a step forward in relation to previous Canoitas, which were mainly spaces for exchanging experiences and knowledge.
From the perspective of Domingos Barreto, advisor to FOIRN and ATRIART, there is concern about this plan, which covers many themes, results that have already been achieved, but which need to be deepened.
“I believe that the Canoita meetings are the appropriate environment for us to do this, respecting the realities of the different communities and sub-regions and the knowledge that exists there for managing the world.” For him, “it was very visible, every day, each people speaking in their own way, in their own way, in the way they are living in their communities. This type of meeting brings together the knowledge of each people and also of the partners (ISA and FGA), in order to do it together, combine together.”
Canoita meetings will take place annually. Until the next meeting, two smaller, sub-regional meetings were planned to deal mainly with fish management agreements – a vital resource for the food security of all communities and which is under increasing pressure with the use of predatory practices, such as diving with a mask and harpoon. There will be a meeting in the middle river, and another in the upper Tiquié – this one including the stretch above Pari-Cachoeira.
The women had separate moments of conversation, generating many ideas, but also highlighting differences in the topics they dedicate themselves to.
Loading