The Amazon Node Assembly of the Red Ticca Colombia (ICCA Colombia Network) took place in Cota, Cundinamarca, from February 25 through March 1, 2024. Its objectives were to promote exchange among representatives from territories of life in the Colombian Amazon, carry out the annual ordinary assembly of the Amazon Node Network, and offer a communications training workshop to develop a strategy for the Node and the Re:wild project
First published on 05/06/2024
By Red Ticca Colombia and Ticca Latinoamérica Regional Communications Team
Within the framework of the regional process of the Amazon Node, the territories of life of the ICCA Colombia network Red Ticca Colombia convened an assembly from February 25 through March 1, 2024, in the municipality of Cota, Cundinamarca.
Founding members of the Amazon Node Network gathered there along with representatives of other territories of life of the Amazon and the team of the Centro de Estudios Médicos Interculturales (CEMI, ICCA Consortium Member). Laura Peña, coordinator of the Governing Board of the Red Ticca Colombia, and Luis Guillermo Izquierdo Mora, president of the Governing Board of the ICCA Latin America network, Red territorios de vida TICCA Latinoamérica, also participated in the assembly.
The assembly was organized with the assistance of CEMI and Re: Wild, organizations with a collaborative work agenda with the Amazon Node.
Learn more: CEMI newsletter about the Assembly (PDF file) (Spanish only)
The Assembly’s objective was to present and reflect on the advances and experiences of the associations with authorities in the Colombian Amazon within the framework of local processes in ICCAs—territories of life. It also sought to evaluate and propose a work plan focused on the defense and promotion of these territories. Finally, they formed a regional directorate for the coming years.
The dialogue centered on the strengths and principal challenges of the territories of life, on the internal difficulties framed by the exchange and weaving of collective ideas. The thematic agenda focused on governance as a fundamental part of strengthening and well-being of the territories of life.
To address these themes, a bidirectional learning methodology was implemented to facilitate the construction of spaces for presentation and exchange of knowledge from each of the territories of life of the Amazon and Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria who participated in the Assembly. Through this collective exercise, they shared notable features of the territories, including their physical geography, culture, and ways of life.
In the same way, they tackled internal problems, such as their most prominent risks and threats and the challenges they are currently facing.
Learn more: ICCA Colombia Network | Member highlight | 17th General Assembly | ICCA Consortium (Video)
In this context, Laura Peña presented the advances and challenges of the Red Ticca Colombia. She highlighted the peer recognition actions through the guardian’s program and the peer review committee and the mechanisms contained within the network.
These actions aim to strengthen the network and expand its presence as a global movement in the country’s territories. This work has motivated more than thirty ICCAs—territories of life in Colombia to advance in the international register of the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA) and the ICCA Registry.
Laura Peña congratulated and encouraged the Amazon Node to continue the work of documentation for the register “since it puts us on the world’s radar and helps in the defense of ancestral and community territories.”
For his part, Luis Guillermo Izquierdo Mora presented the most significant organizational, structural, governance, operational, and technical aspects of TICCA Latinoamérica and its working groups. His presentation focused on the details regarding the Governing Board’s work. It highlighted the importance of organizing work agendas along four lines: documentation, defense, support, and communication. It also focused on themes of equal importance: women, youth, biocultural territories, coastal marine territories, and international politics.
In the same vein, he explained the conclusions of the most recent Regional Assembly, held last year (2023) in Costa Rica, and shared the achieved results with the work plan and the Tárcoles Declaration (Costa Rica, January 2024). He also offered a brief report on the ICCA Consortium’s global strategic plan, which is currently in development and has received input and analysis from the global membership.
As Colombia has done, Luis Guillermo Izquierdo Mora emphasized the importance of strengthening existing national networks. He congratulated Amazon Node for its significant steps toward consolidating organizational efforts within the Consortium to expand the membership and its territorial reach.
Izquierdo indicated that “it is our responsibility to sustain and deepen Consortium policies, to increase the number of territories of life, and to promote the creation of national networks to strengthen the organizational forms in the countries of Latin America.”
Finally, he mentioned that many economic and political barriers exist that hinder the formalization of certain efforts and work plans; nonetheless, he offers a hardy call to not grow weary since, with or without support, “we, the territories of life, are developing practices of defense and care as is our custom and inheritance.”
