“We continue to be frustrated by the lack of understanding about the tremendous importance of Cofán and campesino grassroots conservation activities.”
Fundación para la Sobrevivencia del Pueblo Cofán (FSC), an indigenous support organization founded in 1999, reclaims and protects ancestral territory of the Cofán nation in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon, safeguarding their lands from illegal or poorly regulated logging, mining, agriculture, and oil extraction. The statement above is from recent communications with FSC – and is not a sentiment felt by the Cofán alone.
In fact, following the 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that calls for securing community land rights to fight climate change, indigenous peoples and local communities from 42 countries spanning 76% of the world’s tropical forests wrote a statement that includes this passage:
We—Indigenous Peoples and local communities—play a critical role in stewarding and safeguarding the world’s lands and forests. […] Yet our contributions have so far been overlooked.
Many indigenous communities, like the Cofán, live in globally vital, invaluable, and functioning forest ecosystems precisely because of their environmental stewardship and safeguarding. Yet, so much funding requires that indigenous peoples focus on a particular project – such as producing sustainable commodities like cacao – or place crippling bureaucratic regulations on the funds, “which most small landowners and communities are not be able to handle,” noted our colleagues at FSC. Why are indigenous stewards, who have more than proved their commitment and dedication to conserving their lands and forests, obliged to participate in dictated or administratively burdensome programs in order to do what they are already doing?
FSC emerged from a conviction that unless the Cofán people became more assertive in protecting their traditional lands, rights to that territory would be irrevocably weakened, resulting in eventual disappearance of their very culture. By focusing on practical, on-the-ground, and self-directed actions, FSC has successfully protected over one million acres of rainforest, wetlands, and rivers.
From 2003 to 2012, FSC developed a network of trails, stations, and observation points for the Cofán Ranger Program, which managed many of their conservation areas and trained local communities to take over long-term management. “The entire Ecuadorian Cofán community dedicated itself to the program, accepting small living allowances to spend months at a time patrolling, protecting, and monitoring Cofán territories rather than opting for much higher salaries and community ‘benefits’ offered by oil and mining interests.” With the small income coming in from the Ranger program and various monitoring programs, the Cofán community was able to resist tempting overtures by oil companies.
Nearly two decades later and the important role of indigenous environmental stewardship is still underrecognized and underfunded causing both individuals and communities to consider opening their doors to destructive agencies. With little outside support for their conservation efforts or increasingly bureaucratic systems to collect financial resources, community opinions have shifted, “and if an oil company were to approach the village today it might be received with open arms.”
FSC tirelessly continues to keep this from happening. Working with the Cofán Federation and individual Cofán communities, FSC has ensured the Cofán have property rights and autonomy over much of their territory through legal agreements with the Ministry of Environment. The organization also helps Federation and community leaders navigate the complex demands of programs such as Socio Bosque and has provided assistance in legal battles against regulated and unregulated mining. These are just a handful of the recent self-selected ways in which FSC and the Cofán have chosen to use unrestricted support.
As private funders we have the ability to show our indigenous partners that we trust them to do what they believe is necessary to protect their territories, and by doing this we demonstrate that we do understand the tremendous importance of their conservation activities. As funders we can also support our indigenous partners to navigate the complexities of administrative requirements.
