SAFCA is a strategic alliance that seeks to protect biodiversity and support local and indigenous populations in the fight against deforestation across the Amazon Rainforest
Madre de Dios, Peru, March 18, 2024. – From March 11th to 13th, the III workshop of the SAFCA Alliance took place in the city of Puerto Maldonado, Peru. This event was attended by Executive Directors and technical teams from various organizations, including Conservación Amazónica – ACCA from Peru, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA from Bolivia, the Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano - FCBC from Bolivia, and Aktion Amazonas - AKAM from Denmark.
During this conference, the South American Forest Conservation Alliance, known as SAFCA, was formally established through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the directors of involved parties.
The main objective of the SAFCA alliance is to integrate efforts to address common interests, consolidating a strategic and interinstitutional vision that contributes to the conservation of tropical forests by promoting landscape connectivity from the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest to the Bolivian Chiquitano Forest in the Santa Cruz department.
The event was organized by Conservación Amazónica – ACCA and included an exchange of experiences with indigenous leaders, environmental defenders, and Peruvian national authorities to address the various issues affecting the Amazon Rainforest, such as environmental crimes, law enforcement and strategies for pursuing complaints with conservation authorities.
One of the experts who attended the workshop was Víctor Zambrano, a lifelong local environmental defender who talked about challenges in the protection of biodiversity and the pressing issue of impunity for crimes against the rainforest defendors.
Another expert who attended the SAFCA workshop was Eusebio Ríos, vice president of the federation in charge of the protection of indigenous territories and communities. In his informative session, Ríos talked about the challenges that indigenous communities face, in the face of a high increase in illegal activities and violence in the Peruvian Amazon.
During the working sessions, the technical teams from Peru and Bolivia shared notable experiences about their fieldwork on control and surveillance activities, in climatic data and in the inclusion of young people and community leaders in environmental monitoring and advocacy.
Throughout the event, the directors of the involved organizations, María Elena Gutiérrez (ACCA, Peru), Marcos Terán (ACEAA, Bolivia), Roberto Vides (FCBC, Bolivia), and Toke F. Nyborg (AKAM, Denmark), emphasized that the formation of this alliance is an important step to strengthen coordinated work for the protection of the Tropical Forests of South America. They pointed out that the biological diversity and the social and cultural values that the Amazonian-Chiquitano connectivity landscape holds are fundamental for sustainable development and adaptation to climate change.
In this regard, Toke F. Nyborg, from Aktion Amazonas, emphasized the need for coordinated actions between civil society, local communities, and decision-makers to address the urgent issues that these ecosystems face.
The vision of the SAFCA Alliance is to maintain the largest possible area of conserved and sustainable tropical forests, thereby contributing to resilience to climate change, for the benefit of forest inhabitants and humanity as a whole. The mission of the Alliance is to conserve tropical forests by promoting and establishing natural, productive, and connected landscapes at local and regional scales.
For more information about the SAFCA Alliance and its initiatives, please contact:
• Carla Zavala (Peru) – czavala@conservacionamazonica.org
• Natalia Gil (Bolivia) - ngil@conservacionamazonica.org.bo
• Claudia Belaunde (Bolivia) - cbelaunde@fcbc.org.bo
• Maia Galmés Feuer (Denmark) - maia@aktionamazonas.org