People of the Centre, CNTI and FPP hold Third School of Leadership and Self-Governance in Colombian Amazon

This press release was originally published by CNTI on their website in Spanish.

Between 25 and 27 March 2025, the People of the Centre held the Third School of Leadership and Self-Governance in the Andoke de Aduche Indigenous Reserve - Araracuara (Caquetá Department), with the participation of traditional authorities and students from the Andoke, Uitoto (Nɨpode), Muinane, and Nonuya peoples ancestrally settled in the Middle Caquetá river basin.

The activity was organised in coordination between the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) and the Association of Traditional Authorities of the Regional Indigenous Council of the Middle Amazon (CRIMA), with the support of the team of the Indigenous Technical Secretariat (STI) of the National Commission of Indigenous Territories (CNTI) and its Observatory of Territorial Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ODTPI).

The school focused on topics related to the international conventions on Biodiversity and Climate Change, as well as the national environmental regulations governing Payment for Environmental Services, and explored close interconnections with Indigenous Peoples’ territorial rights in the Middle Caquetá river basin. Based on the contributions of the traditional authorities, the participants reflected on the need for public policies, plans and programmes to implement these agreements in Colombia to be aligned with the life systems, knowledge, traditional laws and forms of territorial planning of the four indigenous peoples.

It was also emphasised that both the Colombian state's environmental institutions and companies interested in biodiversity and climate change mitigation projects must recognise the historic role that indigenous peoples have played, long before the existence of states and conventions, in maintaining a balance with nature, based on respect and listening.

This iteration of the school was also a space for preparing the four indigenous peoples to participate in COP 30 on Climate Change – UNFCCC, which will take place in Belém do Pará (Brazil) in November 2025. During the meeting, the historic ruling issued by the Constitutional Court on 5 June 2024 was shared and analysed, in response to the injunction filed by the Indigenous Council of the Pirá Paraná and the Association of Captains and Traditional Indigenous Authorities of the Pirá Paraná River (ACAIPI). The Court ruled in favour of the communities, recognising that the REDD+ project being carried out in their territory violated their territorial rights, their self-determination, their physical and cultural integrity, and disregarded their ways of life and self-government structures. In its decision, the Court ordered specific measures for the case and issued general calls to all the climate change initiatives currently being developed in indigenous territories, urging the Colombian State to guarantee respect for the rights of these peoples.

The traditional authorities of the four indigenous peoples recognise that the challenges are great, but they reaffirm their commitment to ensure that their voices are heard at COP 30, where they hope to join with other Indigenous Peoples from around the world. Their aspiration is clear: that the States and those mainly responsible for the global impact listen to their demands and make a real commitment to life, nature and indigenous territories.