REDD/REDD+

Colombia and Peru have decided to implement the Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD/REDD+) Strategy which aims at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promote the preservation of biodiversity through the carbon credits incentive. The main goal is for the country to become indenpendent in managing this system through strengthening institutions and finding alternatives ways of managing forests in order to reduce drivers of deforestation and forest degradation; it is financed by the World Bank.

Civil society has raised some issues and concerns with the implementation of the strategy, primarily about: previous consultation, the rights of indigenous and afro communities, disputed territories, and social and environmental safeguards.

BICECA has supporting civil society through information, analysis, and distributing information to other partners, as well as national, regional and local governments, and bank authorities, to ensure their participation and effective advocacy on the REDD issue, in order to prevent any negtive outcomes.

For more information and updates see:

Forests Issue page

Colombia Forests page

Peru Forests page

IIRSA

The region has initiated infrastructure projects that in many ways affect the wildlife and communities around them. Many of these projects are part of the South American Regional Ingrastructure Initiative (IIRSA), and others are financed by International Financial Institutions.

The main problem that the region encounters in developing hydroelectric dams and highways is poor governance. Most of the time, there is a mediocre consultation process that does not fully inform stakeholders or take their demands and concerns into full consideration. There is also lack of  thorough and timely social and environmental assessments, which would evaluate the short and long-term impacts of the project and modify the project so as to reduce or completely elimiate the negative impacts over the communities and ecosystems.

Therefore, it is necessary to empower civil society so that they are able to practice their right to participate and have a voice in defend their way of life and habitat, while at the same time defending the life and health of the Amazon rainforest.

On the 18th, 19th and 20th of July 2005, 29 civil society organizations from diverse countries in South America and Europe, as well as the United States met in Lima, Peru to assess the current status of the South American Regional Infrastructure Initiative (IIRSA) and to develop common strategies regarding the initiative’s most controversial projects.

IIRSA was launched with the stated objective of developing the region’s transportation, energy, and telecommunications sectors. From the beginning, it has had the formal support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), and the La Plata Basin Development Fund (Fonplata); the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), a Brazilian public bank, also considers the initiative a priority.

Following our analysis of IIRSA’s objectives and implications, the organizations present in Lima wish to emphasize the following:

Although we agree with the need to develop and unite our peoples, we find in IIRSA elements that make us doubtful due to:

• Development with questionable sustainability that thereby accelerate the destruction of the Amazon rainforest
• No transparency policy for the integration process, and the dialogue with civil society has not been sufficient for their demands and suggestions to be heard.
• Most projects are located in areas of great natural wealth and high biological and cultural diversity. Instead of integrating our people, it will adversely impact the ecosystems on which their survival depends, and also, indirectly, the survival of all humanity.
• A great part of these projects have no economic, social and environmental feasibility studies.
• It is not clear that the projects are necessary. There are more sustainable alternatives to the current projects.
• Projects such as the Madeira-Mamore-Beni-Madre de Dios Hydroelectric-Industrial Waterway Complex (Directly impacting Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru) could cause the expulsion of thousands of families from their territories, and the destruction of millions of hectares of the Amazon with serious negative impacts on biodiversity. We are aware that this mega-project is being pushed forward in a process that does not adequately consider the cumulative and interactive impacts of its components and associated projects, which are also part of IIRSA.
• The bi-national hydroelectric Project Garabi-Roncador (Uruguay River between Argentina and Brazil) will generate up to 2,400 MW, but will also cause irreversible social and environmental impacts in the region. This, too, is the case with the Paraguay-Paraná Industrial Waterway (Hidrovia), which will affect ecosystems of global importance, such as the Pantanal and other wetlands of the Paraguay-Paraná system.

For these reasons, our organizations propose a broad set of common actions including information sharing and dissemination, and capacity building in order to gather, organize, analyze, and share information, experiences, and knowledge regarding the projects and policies of IIRSA, in this way promoting informed intervention by the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of South American civil society.

We reiterate that government actions should support truly sustainable development and should seek to improve the living conditions of the populations living in those ecosystems, which for centuries have conserved and managed their natural resources in a sustainable manner.

A different form of integration is possible, but only through a broad, informed debate, with the full participation of all of our peoples.

Lima Declaration Signatories

• Amigos da Terra – Amazônia Brasileira Brazil
• Centro del Ambiente y Derechos Humanos (CEDHA) Argentina
• CERDET- Pueblos del Chaco (Centro de Estudios Regionales de Tarija – Pueblos del Chaco / Amigos de la Tierra-Bolivia Bolivia
• Ecoa – Ecologia e Ação Brasil
• Foro Ecologista de Paraná
• Grupo Género y Economía – REMTE
• Friends of the Earth – US
• International Rivers Network USA/Brasil
• Núcleo Amigos da Terra Brasil
• Trópico Seco Perú
• Grupo de Trabajo Racimos de Ungurahui Perú
• PROBIOMA Bolivia
• Grupo de Trabalho Amazonia (Brasil)
• Coalición Ríos Vivos (Ríos vivos) International
• Rede Pantanal (Brasil)

for the list of projects and information see:

BICECA - Problem Projects Page

If you or your organization would like to sign onto the declaration of the Articulación, please write to: to express your interest.