Partner Profile: COIAB

Brazilian indigenous federation is key Conservancy ally in the Amazon rainforest

COIAB, the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, is one of the largest and most respected indigenous coalitions in the entire Amazon Basin. It was created at a meeting of indigenous leaders in April of 1989 and is now comprised of 75 member organizations from all 9 states of the Brazilian Amazon. These organizations are of various kinds – local associations, regional federations, organizations of indigenous women, indigenous teachers and indigenous students. Together they account for more than 60% of the indigenous population of the Amazon. COIAB works to represent its member organizations and provide services in guaranteeing indigenous land rights, health, gender and women’s issues, the environment, and public policies that favor indigenous peoples throughout the region.

Indigenous lands comprise nearly 22% of the Amazon Basin, an area 6 times the size of the state of New York. Indigenous lands in Brazil belong to the federal government, but indigenous groups have use-rights in perpetuity. In other countries of the Basin, indigenous peoples have traditional, ancestral lands but do not have formal land-use rights recognized by the government. Given the large number of indigenous areas and their vast expanse, oftentimes they are invaded by illegal loggers, miners, and poachers without permission. Many indigenous areas are surrounded, or soon will be, by very active ranching and agricultural settlement fronts, meaning that indigenous reserves often house the only large areas of standing forest in a region and act as refuge areas for biodiversity. A recent scientific study done by COIAB and the Conservancy found that 74% of indigenous lands have rates of deforestation lower than their surrounding areas- serving literally as a barrier to deforestation in many places.

Given this scenario, the Conservancy’s Amazon Program has put conservation in indigenous lands at the front of its conservation strategies – hoping to protect the last remaining swaths of the Amazon rainforest while promoting sustainable development and natural resource use by those communities who most depend upon it for their livelihoods.

Since 2003, The Nature Conservancy has been working closely with COIAB to support conservation in the indigenous lands of the Amazon. With the Conservancy’s assistance, last year COIAB developed an “Ethno-environmental Department” that deals directly with issues of the environment and indigenous lands. The Conservancy provides assistance to COIAB through workshops in administration and finance to help it run more efficiently and smoothly and better represent its member organizations. COIAB and the Conservancy have worked together to develop proposals on national levels in Brazil to leverage large-scale funding for conservation in indigenous lands. Together, COIAB and the Conservancy have collaborated in developing important scientific studies that have been key tools to influence policy makers on the important role of indigenous lands in conservation.
 

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From Great Bear to the Amazon: Kelly Brown, indigenous leader from the Great Bear Rainforest, voyages to the Amazon to share his tribe's experiences in land management and learn from indigenous counterparts.

First students graduate from Amazon Indigenous Training Center (CAFI). 15 indigenous students return to native lands with new environmental management skills.

COIAB leadership visited Canada's Great Bear Rainforest to learn more about land management practices that could be applied in indigenous lands throughout the Amazon Basin.

Learn more about COIAB by visiting their Web site (in Portuguese).