On August 31, the organizations that make up the Listen to the Amazon alliance met at a working table with the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Susana Muhammad, and representatives of the Ministry, Visión Amazonia, the Humboldt Institute and the Sinchi Institute, with the purpose of addressing different issues of interest to this region of the country.
“We want to move towards productive and restoration systems that generate a logic of community and social economy, but also consolidate a territorial and institutional model of presence and permanent work with the communities,” said the minister, who presented the government’s progress in environmental matters and the actions it is preparing for next year, such as the strengthening of the 22 Forest Development Centers. the consolidation of territorial rights for communities and the expansion of peasant reserves.
He also announced the creation of a human rights network that will articulate the Ministries of Environment and Sustainable Development, Defense and Interior, and human rights organizations, in order to work synchronously in the different regions to ensure the entry of the environmental sector and the work of environmental leaders. and to guarantee the effective development of government programs aimed at protecting the Amazon.
“We want to find productive synergies with you, which can generate more impact in the Amazon,” the minister told the members of the Listen to the Amazon alliance who, for their part, gave her a series of recommendations – in the short term, for COP16, and in the medium term, for the remaining two years of government – to guarantee the protection of the Colombian Amazon.
Some of the recommendations are: consolidate and formalize the Indigenous Territorial Entities; to consolidate the Amazonian Territorial Planning of the 27 million hectares of indigenous reservations and the territories of peasant communities; promoting environmental justice and defending the rights of peasant communities; improve the implementation of Judgment CTC 4360 of 2018, which declares the Amazon as a subject of rights, and start working on the implementation of Judgment C-280 of 2024 on impact study for environmental licenses; the implementation of the Escazú Agreement and the National Development Plan and strengthening the role of indigenous peoples and PIACI in the conservation of natural cover and biodiversity: ACT/GAIA/TNC.
Read the full Spanish edition of the IRIboletín.
