Territorial Management Training Empowers Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon

June, 2022 - Training Indigenous agents so local teams have tools for managing and monitoring territories is a solution used to strengthen the conservation of Amazon biodiversity and the standing forest. The “Integrated Environmental and Territorial Management in Eastern Amazon Indigenous Lands” project is conducting workshops that were suspended due to the pandemic.

The project is supported by the Partnership for the Conservation of Amazon Biodiversity (PCAB). It was created through a cooperation agreement between USAID/Brazil and the Indigenist Work Center (CTI), and involves the Society, Population and Nature Institute (ISPN), the Wyty-Catë Organization of Timbira Communities of Maranhão and Tocantins, the Maranhão Indigenous Organizations Network (COAPIMA), and the Maranhão Indigenous Women Network (AMIMA). 

As part of the project, the implementation of the Timbira Territorial and Environmental Management Plan (PGTA) in the Kanela and Porquinhos Indigenous Lands includes the training of environmental agents (known as Mentuwajê; young environmental defenders), as well as activities between the capacitation classes. 

They include participatory mapping expeditions in each of the Indigenous lands, and workshops to classify and systematize the data collected during these activities. The fieldwork requires participants to spend several days walking through the forest. During this time, they gather geographic and cultural data and produce participatory maps of territorial monitoring and control.

Agents from both Indigenous lands, representing the Apanjekra and Memortumré peoples, participated in the Mapping Classification and Georeferenced Information Systematization Workshop at the “Penxwyj Hempejxà" Timbira Teaching and Research Center. 

During the training, Indigenous youth, counselors, and teachers discussed concepts related to cartography and geographic information systems. In addition, ethno-mapping was treated as a tool for territorial and environmental management.

Prior to this, two stages of participatory mapping werecarried out in the Kanela and Porquinhos Indigenous lands (read more about it here). 

The next expeditions are currently being planned.

Find out more on the CTI website.