Worldwide attention is being paid to forests as a tool to mitigate climate change. The RRI-RFN conference Rights" Forests and Climate Change highlighted the role of forest communities' rights in mitigating climate change and the potential threats they face due to REDD and adaptation strategies. Yet" little attention has been devoted to unique pressures that inpidual community members face. This event highlighted the role of women and the pressures they face as countries and communities implement measures to counter climate change. Beyond highlighting the pressures the event focused on concrete actions that can be taken to ensure that the rights of women are not overlooked or undermined and their livelihoods are strengthened.

Along with women" indigenous peoples added their voices to the Forum dialogue.  In an Amazon Watch press release" Marco Apurina" Vice-Coordinator of the Coordinating Committee of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) was quoted" "We are the guardians of the forest. This is a critical moment for Indigenous peoples to unite with non-Indigenous activists" teachers" environmentalists" unions and governments. The Amazon rainforest needs everyone to work together now to defend it before it's too late." In an act of solidarity over 17"000 participants from the Forum joined in creating a human banner that read “Salve a Amazonia” (Save the Amazon). 

The Amazonian Basin Indigenous Peoples Organization (COICA) released a declaration following the Forum" which calls for “…the immediate zoning and title over our ancestral territory" which has been used as always by its legitimate inhabitants.”  The nine-point declaration emphatically calls for the acknowledgement and defense of “…the rights of Indigenous peoples" considering the principles of the declaration by the U.N. in regards to the rights of indigenous peoples (UNDRIP) and the good faith and follow through on the obligations by the nation states that have adopted said declaration" to be considered different" and to be respected as different" and that we contribute to the richness and persity of civilizations and cultures that make up humanity.”

• Workshop Summary and Participants' List
  

Resources

An overview of women" rights and natural resources in Brazil

Noemi Miyasaka Porro" Universidade Federal do Para (UFPA)

RRI News post on workshop and video


Photography Credit: Jeffrey Hatcher" RRI