The Foundation's first major initiative was to campaign globally for the protection of the lands of the Kayapo Indians in Brazilian Amazonia. This resulted in 1993 in the legal recognition and demarcation of an area of more than 17,000 square miles as the Menkragnoti Indigenous Area.

Projects Monitored By RF US 2006

Ecuador
Independent Federation of the Shuar People of Ecuador (FIPSE)
The Kutuku Mountain region in Ecuador's Southern Oriente region is a dense and mostly pristine cloud forest. It is also home to the Shuar people, half of whose associations in the region lack land title. The area has been increasingly threatened by oil and mining interests that are eager to exploit its rich resource base. Since 2004, RF-US has supported ten Shuar associations in the region through their representative organization, FIPSE. RF-US's support in 2006 enabled Shuar communities to map definitive boundaries, increase local mapping skills, work with relevant government officials and other stakeholders and gain title to their land. The project also made possible necessary internal coordination and awareness-building within and among Shuar communities.

Suriname
Association of Indigenous Village Leaders (VIDS)
The Lower Marowijne region in Northeastern Suriname is home to eight Lokono and Kali'ña communities, which have filed a collective land claim with the Surinamese government. The area also includes two nature reserves, Galibi and Wanekreek. In 2000, eight communities in the Lower Marowijne began to map their land and file a collective land claim with RF-US's support. During 2006, RF-US continued to support VIDS's efforts to advance the claim. RF-US has also worked closely with VIDS to promote indigenous rights legislation in Suriname, which remains the only country in South America that does not recognize these rights. In this connection, RF-US supported VIDS legal efforts and advocacy within Suriname.

Brazil
Hutukara Yanomami Association
The approximately 13,000 Yanomami living in the Yanomami Area are relatively isolated, with little access to the outside world. Their communities are still recovering from an invasion of over 40,000 gold miners in the 1980s. Although most of the miners were eventually expelled, some remain and their impact continues to be felt on the health and environment of the Yanomami. Worse, the Area is under constant attack from local politicians and mining interests. RF-US is supporting the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HYA), which represents the Yanomami people externally and will soon begin to engage directly in policy, advocacy and self-protection initiatives. The project is strengthening HYA leader's ability to advocate on behalf of the Yanomami in the framework of a specific campaign to improve living conditions in the Yanomami Area.

Projects monitored by RF UK 2006

Peru

Project: Indigenous land rights in the Selva Central
Partners: COMARU, (Consejo Machiguenga del Rio Urubamba), Shinai Serjali, Nampitsi.
The overall aim of this project was to build the capacity of communities in the Urubamba and Ucayali regions of Peru to respond to the threats to their land and livelihoods posed by oil exploitation, illegal logging and colonisation and land speculation. The project provided start-up support for three indigenous rights projects, all based in the Urubamba and Ucayali Valleys, and to promote communication between them. The individual projects trained Machiguenga communities of the Urubamba Valley in asserting their legal rights to land; provided for community monitoring of oil company activities in the Ucayali and Lower Urubamba Valleys; and supported the Nahua in their quest for community land title.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Project: Enabling the Pygmy communities of Lisala district to respond to threats to land and livelihoods
Partner: Centre International des Droits des Batwa (CIDB)
The overall aim of this project was to ensure that forest communities in Lisala district affected by the activities of logging companies have information and resources that enable them to negotiate and assert their rights. The project also provided support for practical activities to develop alternative livelihood activities, allowing communities to compensate for the losses resulting from commercial logging. Batwa communities are affected by the activities of industrial logging companies in the Yakata area of Lisala.

Project: Supporting the development of Pygmy support organisations in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
Partners: Défense et Protection des Minorités Ethniques au Congo (DPMET), Coordination des Paysans Pisciculteurs du Kivu (COPPI), Programme de Réhabilitation et de Protection des Pygmées (PREPYG), Programme d'Integration et de Développement des Peuples Pygmées, (PIDP)
The overall aim of this project was to ensure that forest peoples in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have access to information, support and training from effective local organisations. The project therefore provided four organisations in North and South Kivu and Maniema provinces with training and support. Specifically, the project assisted these organizations in developing effective projects that meet the basic needs of Pygmy communities, and in training them to be effective advocates for their rights to land and natural resources and their rights as Congolese citizens.

Project: Community mapping in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Partner: Centre National d'Appui au Développement et au Participation Populaire (CENADEP)
The overall aim of this project was to ensure that forest peoples in the Democratic Republic of Congo have a documentary basis for securing their land rights. Forest communities in three provinces in DRC in produced participatory, geo-referenced community maps of their ownership and use of the forest. These maps will be used by Congolese NGOs and community groups as lobbying tools to ensure the presence of communities in the national zoning plan which is currently being developed by the government of DRC, to negotiate with logging companies who are already operating in some areas within the target provinces, and to negotiate with conservation organisations and the Congolese government in the designation and management of protected areas.

General Program Support
RF Fund provided the RF UK with general program support – the first in a three-year program – to consolidate their overseas project and campaign program, allowing the RF-UK to scale up the impact of its work. The program will ensure that the RF UK is able to continue its essential campaigns, broaden and deepen its project work and to promote the positive results of the work of the Rainforest Foundation.

Projects monitored by RF Norway 2006

1. Protecting the Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples in the Peruvian Amazon

Long term objective: The territorial, social and cultural rights of the isolated indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon are recognized and secured.

Location and rationale: The Peruvian rainforest is, together with the western rainforest of Brazil, the world's last refuge for relatively large populations of indigenous peoples living without established contact with the outside world. The escalating destruction of these isolated tribes' rainforest home, the ongoing persecution and massacres committed by loggers, and the increasing risk of exposure to contagious diseases against which the isolated indigenous people have no natural defence mechanisms, continue to threaten these isolated indigenous peoples' mere survival. There is an urgent need for a conscious and systematic intervention on their behalf.

Aims for 2006:
1. The legal protection of the isolated indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon is strengthened

2. The national organization for indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, AIDESEP's regional and local organisations in the state of Madre de Dios have improved their capacity to protect the isolated indigenous populations in their region

3. The practical protection of the borders of existing territorial reserves for isolated indigenous peoples in Madre de Dios is improved

2. Empowering the Committee of Timbira Indigenous Teachers in Brazil

Project objective: Empowerment of the Committee of Timbira Indigenous Teachers for it to be recognized by the Brazilian government as the organization responsible for the educational policy of the Timbira Indians.
Location and rationale: North-Eastern Brazil, states of Maranhão and Tocantins. The Committee of Timbira Indigenous Teachers is the main force in the organization that represents more than 5000 Timbira Indians in Brazil. They are fighting for the fulfilment of their constitutional rights within educational matters. The project also provides training for the teachers on how to administer financial and other resources and formulate proposals to submit to government agencies.

Activities: The activities consist of capacity building, institutional support, information exchange, negotiation and advocacy. The project's significance at the national level is to enable government agencies and other indigenous communities to define more adequate criteria for culturally appropriate public policies for indigenous peoples in Brazil.

2006 is the last year of a two-year support from RF Fund.

3. Indigenous Education and Resource Management in Acre, Brazil

Long term objective: The indigenous movement in Acre has sufficient autonomy and capacity to secure the long-term sustainability of indigenous cultures, societies and territories.

Location and rationale: The indigenous peoples in the state of Acre, the westernmost state in the Brazilian Amazon, bordering Peru and Bolivia, are exposed to a series of threats to their long-term cultural, economic and environmental sustainability. Large-scale infrastructure projects and increasing illegal logging are amongst the main threats.

The project aims at strengthening the indigenous movement and indigenous societies through differentiated education, political and pedagogical training, linguistic development and pilot projects in resource management. The project is executed by two organizations in Acre, the Organization of Indigenous Teachers of Acre – Organização dos Professores Indígenas do Acre (OPIAC) and the Pro-Indigenous Commission of Acre – Comissão Pró Indio do Acre (CPI).

Project objective and expected results:
Project objective:
OPIAC and CPI contribute substantially to strengthening the autonomy and capacity of the indigenous movement in Acre through the development of differentiated education and sound resource management regimes in the indigenous territories.

Expected results:
1. OPIAC is consolidated as the indigenous societies' main vehicle for demanding and securing differentiated and bilingual education.
2. OPIAC is recognized as a key actor in the project for higher indigenous education in Acre.
3. Indigenous teachers are better qualified as language trainers and the indigenous languages are more widely used in indigenous societies and schools.
4. The indigenous teachers have a higher professional and pedagogical level.
5. Agro ecological pilot projects are planned and initiated in 15 indigenous territories.

2006 is the first year of a two-year application