| Environmental Justice and Human Rights |
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Working by the principles that native peoples of the Amazon are its best stewards and that their knowledge and traditions are important for all, Alianza Arkana is engaged throughout northern Peru helping indigenous groups defend their collective rights and bring national and international attention to their struggles. Indigenous communities face powerful foes. Oil, gas and mining companies backed by permissive state policies exploit their resources and threaten their ancestral lands. Our approach is to support indigenous peoples’ priorities and ownership of social and political processes so that they can develop successful strategies to defend their livelihoods, and ways of being in the world. We believe that indigenous peoples’ cosmo-visions, spirituality and social organization are central in protecting the forests they depend upon. At the same time, in the Peruvian context, it is necessary to work towards shared agendas and visions in order to counteract the presence and practices of very aggressive extractive economies. Heeding their call, Alianza Arkana focuses resources on the most effective indigenous leaders, supports cooperation between indigenous groups and fosters partnerships with lawyers, activists and other NGOs, swelling the ranks of allies and providing timely and effective assistance in the field. A key strategy of the alliance has been providing legal support when indigenous groups confront the companies or the state in court, on the rivers or in the streets. With our legal partners at PDDI, the Program for the Defense of Indigenous Rights, Alianza Arkana works to strengthen indigenous peoples' positions as they negotiate with the state and challenge companies that contaminate. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites |
