Indigenous Local Development Strategies
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Session Description
Come share experiences and jointly analyze how indigenous local development processes contribute to wider strategies aimed at mitigating external pressures over the Amazon. We will also discuss how this affects local conservation programs in the region.
Time & Location
Time:
11:45 - 13:00, Thursday, April 10, 2014
BST
Location:
SBS, Seminar 3
Speakers
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Speaker
Martin Von Hildebrand has spent the last five decades accompanying indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. During this time, he has been a fundamental actor to obtain the recognition of indigenous communities rights in the National Constitution, including the collective ownership of their land and the development of their governments. They now own 26 million hectares of continuous rainforest. Their rights have been recognized, and they have set up many governments.
Currently, Martin, along with NGOs, indigenous organizations, civil society, governments, and private enterprises, is coordinating the protection of the largest stretch of rainforests on the planet (the northern part of the Amazon between the Andes and the Atlantic, 260 million hectares).
He is an ethnologist with a doctorate from the University of Paris VII, founder and the current president of the Gaia Amazonas Foundation. He has been awarded a dozen international awards.
