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Amazon Indigenous Training Center for Conservation Opens

Indigenous spiritual leader, or pajé, performs traditional blessing of indigenous students CAFI Indigneous Training Center, Manaus, Brazil

Indigenous spiritual leader, or pajé, performs traditional blessing of indigenous students at CAFI’s inauguration.
Photos © Margaret Francis/TNC

 

Indigenous leader from the Great Bear Rainforest voyages to the Amazon

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

Leaders from COIAB traveled to British Columbia to learn more about land management practices that could be applied in indigenous lands throughout the Amazon Basin.


Inauguration held in Manaus, Brazil

On August 21, 2006, COIAB, the largest indigenous federation in the Amazon, and The Nature Conservancy inaugurated the Amazon Indigenous Training Center in Manaus, Brazil. CAFI, as the center is known locally, is a pilot initiative in the promotion of conservation in indigenous lands, which comprise nearly 22% of the Amazon Basin. CAFI is the first facility of its kind in the Brazilian Amazon to work exclusively in training indigenous youth in techniques in conservation specific to indigenous lands.

CAFI’s mission is to strengthen local and regional indigenous organizations by training indigenous technicians who will work in land management in their own territories. The Center is a pioneer initiative in this area in the Amazon, as its instructors, both indigenous and non-indigenous, are trained specialists in topics important in meeting the current demands faced by indigenous communities in conservation and development.   

The first group of 15 students, coming from 12 different indigenous lands of the Brazilian Amazon, will begin the course "Ethno-environmental Management" this month. Some of the disciplines offered as part of this course include: monitoring and patrolling in indigenous lands, GIS (geographic information systems) and remote sensing techniques, indigenous and environmental legislation, natural resource management, and ethnomapping among others.

After their 5-month training based in Manaus, the students will return to their areas of origin to put into practices the technical knowledge gained. During its first year, it is expected that two groups of 15 students each will be trained, with the possibility of more depending on results obtained.

“CAFI is a giant step towards the promotion of conservation in indigenous areas of the Amazon by offering technical assistance to indigenous youth who will serve as catalysts in their own lands,” says Jorge Terena, Indigenous Liaison for the Conservancy’s Amazon Conservation Program.