With welcoming remarks, the Executive Director of ACTO, Ambassador Carlos Lazary, inaugurated the workshop for the creation of the Indigenous Peoples Module of the Amazon Regional Observatory (ARO). The event brought together representatives of foreign ministries, ministries of indigenous affairs and indigenous health, and other institutions of ACTO Member Countries.
The purpose of this meeting was to present to ACTO Member Countries the preliminary proposal of the thematic lines of work defined for the content development of the Indigenous Peoples’ Module, with the aim of identifying complementary or new thematic lines, as well as identifying the institutional sources or managers of information for each topic.
During the workshop, participants acknowledged the work of ACTO and the significant contribution from this effort focused on the health of Indigenous Peoples and expressed great interest in the inclusion of the issue of climate change.
This first stage within the development of the Indigenous Peoples Module will contribute to the creation of a regional border cooperation structure for Amazonian countries on health and Indigenous Peoples issues, with emphasis on Indigenous Peoples in Isolation in Initial Contact (PIACI). This will allow the exchange of information and data in order to address the threats and epidemics in the region, including the Covid-19 pandemic and other emerging and endemic tropical diseases that affect these populations, based on a respectful attitude towards the concepts of their own and traditional medicine. This module presents in its first level of information the following topics:
- Amazonian Indigenous Peoples
- Indigenous Peoples in isolation and in initial contact
- Culture, knowledge, history
- Health
- Climate and environment
- Actors related to Indigenous Peoples and territories
- Spatial information on indigenous peoples and territories
- Legal instruments
- Documentary and multimedia content
The next phase of the module will include resilience to climate change of Indigenous Peoples, among others. At the end of the meeting, the countries committed to providing content and contributing through forms capable of enriching the topics of interest to indigenous affairs and health institutions.
Amazon Regional Observatory (ARO).
Its vision is to be an Amazon Information Reference Center and a permanent Virtual Forum that fosters the flow and exchange of information among institutions, government authorities, the scientific community, academia and the civil society of the Amazonian countries.
The second phase of ARO implementation will improve the functionalities of the modules developed in the first phase, such as the CITES and Geomazon modules and new thematic areas.
The Indigenous Peoples Module is being developed within the framework of the activities of the Regional Contingency Plan for the Protection of Health of Highly Vulnerable Indigenous Peoples in Initial Contact (ACTO/PAHO/IDB).
