Ensuring the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon

Safeguarding the land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Brazilian Amazon is crucial. Indigenous Peoples, who steward the Brazilian Amazon forests, are subject to political fluctuations, despite the country’s progressive land rights regulations for ancestral lands. With promising commitments from Brazil’s current government to recognise indigenous territories, local communities have a window of opportunity to correct longstanding injustices. The corporate lobbies for agribusiness and resource extraction are still powerful and relentless.

The Podáali Fund and COIAB are focusing on helping the Brazilian government to advance the demarcation process for indigenous lands over 3 million hectares of tropical forest. The initiative hopes to catalyse the demarcation processes of larger indigenous territories and conservation areas (some 34 million hectares), which are connected and linked.

Podáali Fund is the first indigenous-managed fund as a main partner of Tenure Facility. COIAB is the largest regional indigenous organisation, active in 64 sub-regions and representing more than 165 indigenous communities across nine regions. COIAB’s leaders are democratically elected by Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon.

COIAB created the Podáali Fund to serve as a financial mechanism channelling funds to the Amazon community organisations it represents. While Podáali is not exclusively a women’s organisation, it is noteworthy that a significant number of its directors and staff are indigenous women.

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