Protect an Acre Grants

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CONCONAWEP Federacion Waorani

$25,000 to support using the Waorani’s legal precedent against the Ecuadorian government’s proposed auction of their ancestral territory to the international oil industry to defend 7 million additional acres of rainforest threatened by oil auction. This project is also supporting efforts to strengthen women’s leadership through capacity building and real world experience in implementation of projects in support of their communities and will develop alternative education pilot projects across Waorani communities with a vision to expand the model into communities of other Indigenous Nations.

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Amazon Frontlines

$30,000 to support efforts with Indigenous partners in the Ecuadorian Amazon to slow the spread of coronavirus in the region through immediate action in two phases: prevention through communications in Indigenous languages and the creation of an emergency response fund. With devastating fires that raged across the Amazon in 2019 and governments that actively push to open the last remaining tracts of primary forest to resource extraction, and now with the addition to the currently COVID-19 crisis, strengthening Indigenous peoples’ autonomy and capacity to resist has never been more urgent and this grant will also support efforts to strengthen women’s movements in the western Amazon over the next year.

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Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku

$10,000 to provide emergency aid to support Kichwa Indigenous peoples of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon after extreme flooding of the Bobonaza river on their territory has caused hundreds of families to lose their homes and also severely damaged their crops. This is the worst flooding seen in the region, almost certainly connected to climate change and deforestation outside Sarayaku territory, and is coming at a time when Indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon are fighting to prevent the spread of coronavirus on their territories.

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Amazon Women Defenders of the Rainforest

$5,000 to support the Amazon Women Defenders of the Rainforest leading a major mobilization to coincide with International Women’s Day, including bringing 100 women from Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon to the capital city of Quito to meet with and hold accountable government representatives to investigate rights abuses and provide greater protection of Indigenous women’s rights with a particular focus on the extractive industries.

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Instituto Internacional de Derecho y Sociedad (IIDS)

$5,000 to support the Indigenous community of Tres Islas in the Peruvian Amazon, which has been involved in a long struggle to protect their territory from invasion, principally by mining concessions authorized by the Peruvian government. This grant would support sending the Tres Islas community president and a legal advisor from IIDS to Haiti to attend a working meeting before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights along with representatives from the Peruvian government regarding monitoring and accountability towards the implementation of the Precautionary Measure and other IACHR decisions calling for the cancellation of the mining concessions and protecting Tres Islas’ 75,000 acres of traditional territory in the Peruvian Amazon.

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Hakhu Fundacion Amazonia

$5,000 to support Kallary Amazon Labs, a comprehensive Indigenous-led filmmaking retreat and workshop for 18 Indigenous women and youth from the central south of the Ecuadorian Amazon, along with an additional 5 Indigenous participants from Brazil and Mexico, to share their individual experiences with trauma and resistance, heal collectively and use their inspiration to create visual stories. The overall goal of this project is to increase Indigenous control over the narrative of their own stories and the way they are presented to the world.

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Ceibo Alliance

$10,000 to support an Indigenous-led coalition of the Kofán, Siona, Secoya and Waorani peoples from the northern Ecuadorian Amazon holding a strategic planning retreat to uphold recent victories, including protecting 500,000 acres of Waorani rainforest land from oil drilling, and seeking to build Indigenous power and capacity and to strengthen the global alliances necessary to confront industry megaprojects and increasingly dangerous political actors that threaten the entire Amazon. This grant supported overall logistical and planning costs for the week-long retreat held in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, including lodging, food and travel costs for approximately 25 Indigenous participants attending from the 4 Indigenous nations.

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Amazon Watch

$40,000 to support amplifying the voices and solutions of Indigenous peoples in response to the Amazon fires as the best way to prevent the next catastrophe. This grant is supporting 6 Amazon-based organizations for the following: providing emergency aid and supporting Indigenous fire brigades and Indigenous communities marching hundreds of miles to the regional capital in Bolivia in response to the devastating fires in the Amazon region of that country; travel support for Indigenous women that are part of the Women Defenders of the Amazon Against Extraction to participate in the Minga Indígena, an international gathering to promote learning, discussion, and reflection among Indigenous leaders and share updates about how their communities and territories are developing alternative solutions to climate change; and legal and logistical support for the Kichwa people of Sarayaku refiling their historic case that found the Ecuadorian government guilty of rights violations associated with pursuing oil drilling activities without their consent and holding a community-wide assembly on their territory to report back on their work and to begin planning next steps towards securing permanent protection of their rainforest territory

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Fundo Socioambiental CASA

$50,000 to provide longterm support to Indigenous Peoples mobilizing to save their territories, including in response to the Amazon fires and the ongoing threat tied to Brazil’s Bolsonaro government slashing environmental protections, human rights standards, and the rule of law to benefit the very actors destroying the rainforest. Indigenous communities have fought back on many fronts – forming Indigenous fire brigades to directly put out fires, continuing to confront and stop illegal activities on their territories despite the great security risks of doing so, organizing peaceful mass mobilizations in the region, and holding emergency Indigenous assemblies to strategize and plan courses of action. CASA has an existing and robust network of local advisors across different parts of the Amazon and are able to get funds to Indigenous communities that are underfunded, as well as provide rapid response support to address threats to Indigenous leaders.

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Yayasan PUSAKA

$4,000 to support the Papuan Indigenous Peoples Action Week, with various dialogues and actions in Jakarta for communities and civil society organizations related to the lack of proper consultation in the permitting process for industrial plantations, which has resulted in deforestation, impacts on food production and livelihoods, and other human rights violations. Support went towards the overall event as well as travel support for 4 Indigenous Papuans from Sorong to go to Jakarta to participate in week of activities.