As its title indicates, this handbook is intended for the indigenous communities of Colombia, with the objective of illustrating, in a practical and detailed manner, the processes established in Decree 1075 of 2015 and its Title 7 for the establishment, expansion, restructuring and internal consolidation of indigenous reserves and other complementary regulations.
It serves as an input to provide indigenous communities with guidance on the main aspects and elements they must take into account for these processes in order to ensure better interaction with the relevant authorities, with the objective of achieving the legalization of their ancestral and traditional territories.
In this regard, there are important documents, studies and texts about indigenous lands in Latin America and Colombia. Our focus is on complementing this information with the lessons learned in our work hand-in-hand with the indigenous communities of Putumayo, Caquetá, Amazonas, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Antioquia, whom we have assisted in groundbreaking processes for reserve establishment and expansion.
The above is part of the mission of the Amazon Conservation Team, a not-for-profit organization that seeks the conservation of tropical rainforests and the strengthening of local communities. Our interest is to support these communities to ensure the protection, conservation and recovery of their ancestral and traditional territories as the foundation for the primary governance of the indigenous peoples.
Through this handbook, we wish to share the experience we have gained in recent years in the legalization of indigenous territories, with special thanks to the Acacia Conservation Fund, which encouraged and supported us in documenting these lessons learned and in generating reflections on the assertion of indigenous territorial rights in Colombia through specific processes led by the communities that we have had the opportunity to assist.