Protect an Acre Grants

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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.

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Grassroots Consulting

$4,500 to support travel costs to participate in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) annual meeting and the launching there of an updated report, ‘Who Watches the Watchmen?,’ to continue to publicly pressure the RSPO to enact meaningful change in the palm oil industry towards forest protection and upholding community rights.

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Amazon Frontlines

$10,000 to support bringing four Indigenous leaders from the Upper Amazon to the UN Climate Week in New York to raise awareness and support for the growing Indigenous movement to protect the Upper Amazon while forging connections with other Indigenous movements and civil society actors with the goal of strengthening Indigenous Peoples’ position in decision making around how to best protect the Amazon as Earth’s greatest defenses against climate change in light of recent devastating fires across the Amazon basin.

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Pueblo Originario de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Cantón Santa Clara (PONAKICSC)

$5,000 to support Kichwa Communities of Piatua towards mobilizing and food costs for 200 Indigenous men and women from impacted communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon to participate in a legal hearing and related activities challenging plans to build a hydroelectric dam that would irreparably affect 23 Indigenous communities and the headwaters of an important river that is part of the Llanganates–Sangay ecological corridor, considered one of the most biodiverse and endemic areas on Earth. The community won their legal case stopping the dam.

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Associação das Mulheres Munduruku Wakoborun

$5,000 to support an assembly led by Munduruku women to strengthen alliances and plan to confront threats to defend collective territories in the Brazilian Amazon that are almost entirely covered with pristine forests despite the constant menace of illegal loggers, wildcat miners and other threats in the form of various concessions, as well as the assault on Indigenous rights that has occurred since the election of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.