USAID has an overarching Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PRO-IP) which guides our work to consistently engage Indigenous Peoples in the design, implementation, and monitoring of projects. USAID believes partnerships and consultation processes allow communities to play an active role and ensures that those benefits are in line with the communities’ self-determined development objectives. Indigenous Peoples' knowledge systems hold the potential to contribute solutions to global health and food security challenges, and Indigenous Peoples’ support for climate change mitigation and adaptation is already well documented. USAID focuses on enhancing Indigenous Peoples' capabilities on risk management for both natural and man-made disasters, and providing technical and soft skills training programs for Indigenous women-led entrepreneurships;
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PROFILE
The Amazon biome is home to the world's largest rainforest. It is an extensive area covering 7 million sq kilometers (2.7 sq miles) in Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Guyana, Suriname, and France’s Guyane (French Guiana). The Amazon plays a vital role in regulating the planet’s climate as it stores around 140 billion metric tons of carbon in its forests and soils, and plays a massive role in the fight against climate change. Amazon rivers carry an estimated 16 percent of all the freshwater discharged globally by rivers to the ocean. The Amazon is home to perhaps the largest diversity of flora and fauna in the world, as well as 30 million people, including 1.6 million Indigenous Peoples and 400 different tribal groups. Well over 100 of those groups live in voluntary isolation from the outside world and depend on the forests and waters of the Amazon for their survival.
Protected areas and Indigenous territories are the best preserved lands in the Amazon, which is why USAID believes that Indigenous Peoples are the best stewards to conserve these irreplaceable lands and waters and to preserve Indigenous cultures. Indigenous Peoples’ active and meaningful participation in planning the development and decisions affecting the Amazon is critical to conserving this vital ecosystem in the long term. Safeguarding their rights and resources is essential in conserving the flora and fauna that live in this biome, not only for the region but also for the world.
USAID works to improve the representation of Indigenous Peoples in governance, so that they can promote their own rights and livelihoods to manage the forests and waters of the Amazon biome in sustainable ways. This commitment builds on a history of collaboration with Indigenous Peoples through previous regional programs.
A) AMAZON REGIONAL PROJECTS WITH ACTIVITIES IN ECUADOR
AMAZON INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND RESOURCES (AIRR)
By strengthening Indigenous organizations, the AIRR project empowers Indigenous Peoples to better exercise their rights in the face of large-scale infrastructure development and extractive activities that may affect their livelihoods. USAID partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to incorporate the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples when planning public and private sector development to balance human well-being and environmental conservation. Through a combination of grants, loans and market analyses, the project also provides support to existing Indigenous businesses helping them grow and reach national, regional or international markets.
Total Project Investment in Ecuador: $2 million
Duration: August 2019 – August 2024
TOGETHER FOR CONSERVATION
Together for Conservation is a joint initiative of USAID and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to foster civil society's engagement in Amazon conservation and in preventing conservation crimes in Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador. The five-year project strengthens the capacities of diverse civil society stakeholders–especially Indigenous organizations–to improve and proactively lead efforts to conserve biodiversity and thwart transnational conservation crimes in the Amazon.
Total Project Investment in Ecuador: $1.65 million
Duration: October 2021 - September 2026
B) PROJECTS IN ECUADOR
INDIGENOUS GOVERNANCE AGAINST RISKS AND THREATS (GIRA)
USAID supports the Federation of Chachi Centers of Esmeraldas (FECCHE) and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE) to implement indigenous-owned risk management systems to reduce vulnerability to threats and strengthen self-determination.
Total Project Investment: $2.18 million
Duration: March 2023 - March 2026
SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AND LIVELIHOODS FOR A VITAL AMAZON (SELVA)
USAID works with Indigenous groups and other local communities in the Northern Amazon region to defend their rights and their territories, efficiently manage the natural resources they possess, and develop sustainable livelihoods that will provide people with reliable income and employment sources.
Total Project Investment: $6.77 million
Duration: April 2023 - April 2028