Grants in 2022

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Fundación Alianza Ceibo

$15,000 to support production of Indigenous-made media, including of a series of radio episodes to be aired across the major Amazonian Indigenous radio stations in Ecuador that will shed light on the context and community-led processes that have resulted in several landmark legal wins advancing the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and territorial defense in Ecuador. The project includes ongoing capacity formation for 25 Indigenous storytellers (18 of whom are women) through an Indigenous Communications School and Indigenous-led production and distribution of more than 20 powerful Indigenous-made media products.

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Fundación Alianza Ceibo in collaboration with Cabildo Siona de Buenavista

$12,500 to support a Siona community in the Colombian Amazon to defend their rights and fortify their community land patrols to defend their territory against illegal incursions by extractive interests and armed actors. Supported activities include: ongoing activities by the Indigenous Guard program, including land patrols and training for young rangers; skill and information sharing gatherings between Siona and other community land patrols across the region; accompaniment and support for Siona leadership in the community of Buenavista; legal strategies to defend Siona rights and lands, including advancing a pending case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); and land titling efforts to secure over 7,000 acres of ancestral territory.

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Amazon Frontlines in collaboration with Fundación Alianza Ceibo and Siekopai Nation

$12,500 to support a concerted push towards securing land title for three key communities in Peru—an area over 250,000 acres of rainforest—through this process the Siekopai can realize a bi-national biological, social, and cultural corridor for their people of over 1.4 million acres and knock down barriers to land titling for dozens of other Indigenous nations across the country, as well as eliminate the Permanent Production Forest designation over their lands.

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Organización Waorani de Pastaza (OWAP)

$25,000 to support strengthening core organizational capacity of Organización Waorani de Pastaza as well as 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. The project is supporting efforts to: strengthen leadership capacity through training and hands on project management; expand relationships with stakeholder communities through planning and visioning assemblies; strengthen Indigenous rights to FPIC by securing a ruling on their case before Ecuador’s Constitutional Court; support Waorani women-led food sovereignty initiatives in 10 communities; implement the second year of intercultural education projects across 12 Waorani communities; and to finalize territorial demarcation efforts and scaling land patrolling to prevent an uptick in illegal logging and mining.

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Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana (CONFENIAE) and Mujeres Amazónicas (Women Defenders of the Amazon)

$10,000 to support both CONFENIAE and Mujeres Amazónicas for several Indigenous women-led events and mobilizations organized around International Women’s Day. Funds supported the Amazonian Women’s Congress bringing together 500 women leaders from the 11 Indigenous Nations in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the launch event for the Casa de Mujeres Amazónicas, a new community center serving as a safe space for women to retreat, connect, train, and receive support.

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Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (KSPPM)

$11,000 to support work with 23 Indigenous Tano Batak communities in the Lake Toba region in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, impacted by Toba Pulp Lestari – a notorious company which stole their land. The communities are being supported with mobilizations, networking and advocacy work, field visits, documentation, and facilitated communications and processes with government agencies, as part of a multi-year effort to secure land rights to more than 50,000 acres for Tano Batak communities.