Today, April 19, the Indigenous Peoples’ Day is commemorated in Brazil with the purpose of celebrating the cultural diversity of the Indigenous peoples and also seeking public policies that guarantee the rights of these native peoples.
In the framework of the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact of the Amazon region, ACTO has executed two projects: a) Strategic Framework for the Development of a Regional Agenda for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI, for its acronym in Spanish), and b) Indigenous People in the Border Region of ACTO.
These projects resulted in a proposal for Amazonian Regional Guidelines for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact, a Regional Health Care Strategy, a Guide for Health Surveillance in Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Region, and Guidelines for the Exchange of Traditional Knowledge in Indigenous Border Peoples for Biodiversity Management.
This work laid the groundwork for promoting a regional cross-border cooperation structure among Amazonian countries on health and indigenous peoples issues, with an emphasis on PIACI, which will allow for addressing threats and epidemics in the region, including the COVID-19 pandemic and other emerging tropical diseases, from an attitude of respect for traditional medicine concepts.
We know that the Amazon is a highly vulnerable ecosystem to climate change, and the indigenous peoples who inhabit these territories are the most affected due to their high dependence on the ecosystems. However, they have a set of indigenous practices and knowledge that contribute to confronting the impacts of climate change.
In this context, the project “Creation of the Amazon Regional Platform of Indigenous Peoples” is being implemented within the framework of ACTO, to highlight the role of indigenous knowledge related to climate change and to be taken into account in the design of public policies, in addition to strengthening the participation and contribution of Indigenous Peoples in the fulfillment of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda.
Photo credit:123rf – Índios de la comunidad de Arara do Laranjal, cerca al río Xingu, Amazonas, Brasil. 2007
