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.

Bolivia 2005

The FUND is financing a project related to the Ayoreo Community in Puerto Paz. The project has three components forestry, agriculture and handicraft.
The first, forestry, intends to contribute to the conservation of the forest through the enrichment of selected tree species.
The second, agriculture, supports the improvement of the nutrition of the Ayoreos, recovering and improving traditional practices of cultivating species well known to them and which were part of their daily diet.
The third, handicraft component, has the objective of consolidating the ongoing production and good quality with social controls established in order to manage this economic initiative. It is a women's project and it is very motivating for the community whose work plan is being implemented.

Monitored by RF US 2005

Brazil

Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR)
Thanks to the Rainforest Foundation Fund, in 2005 RF-US provided continued support to CIR’s legal department and for an organization-wide strategic planning process. This work extended RF-US’s support for an ongoing campaign by CIR to establish the demarcation of Raposa Serra do Sol, a 6,500-square mile area that is the traditional home of Ingaricó, Macuxi, Patamona, Taurepang, and Wapichana people. In April 2005, the Brazilian government ratified the demarcation of Raposa Serra do Sol.

Project outputs:
CIR managed approximately 50 legal cases, 90% of which related to RSS. Won a case which sought to prevent demarcation of RSS. Reached a friendly settlement with the Brazilian Government regarding the 1988 killing of a Macuxi youth.
CIR provided legal advice for an average of 50 community members per month.
Initiated an institutional strengthening process, and helped to obtain first substantial outside funding for the legal department.

Guyana

Amerindian Peoples Association (APA)
With support from the Rainforest Foundation Fund, RF-US provided funding for capacity building, institutional strengthening, and advocacy during 2005. The main challenge was to push for changes in the Amerindian Act, the main law dealing with indigenous peoples in Guyana. A weak draft act developed by the government was shelved due to effective lobbying by APA, a major triumph for traditionally marginalized indigenous peoples.

Project outputs:
Successfully lobbied to shelve potentially harmful Amerindian legislation.
Waged visible public campaign against mining on indigenous lands, obtaining a parliamentary hearing and media coverage.

Suriname

Association of Indigenous Village Leaders (VIDS)
Since 2003, RF-US has worked to strengthen VIDS’s ability to establish recognition and protection of indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights in Suriname (Suriname is the only country in the Americas that does not recognize indigenous rights). With support from the Rainforest Foundation Fund, in 2005 a group of ten people trained through this project held regional and community workshops. VIDS created a ‘land rights unit’ to push for indigenous rights legislation. As a result of VIDS’s work, towards the end of 2005 the Surinamese government agreed to begin to address indigenous land rights issues – an exciting and important breakthrough..

Project outputs:
VIDs forged an embryonic – and unprecedented – discussion with the government regarding land rights.
VIDS helped establish an office in the priority Lower Marowijne region (CLIM).
VIDS strengthened organizationally through, e.g., the re-election of it s leaders & approval of a land rights strategy and organizational plan.

Monitored by RF UK 2005

Peru - Ashaninka People

This project is the termination of a three and a half year project in Peru which has now successfully guaranteed the recognition of 1 million hectares of indigenous lands and forest reserves. The titles to the land of 25 communities in the Tambo valley have been officially handed over from the Peruvian state to the communities themselves and we expect the remaining titles for the Ene communities to be issued by the middle of 2006.

The extended six months of this project has ensured that the communities will finally obtain their formal land titles. 25 communities in the Tambo Valley have had their titles and extensions confirmed and the rest of the Ene communities are expected to receive their titles by the end of this year. All the additional field work has been completed and the Peruvian state has confirmed that they are satisfied with all the files. This time, it does indeed appear that all that remains are the formalities of signatures. The attribution of 25 titles already is a real indicator that the balance has tipped and the Peruvian government is at last going to fulfil its obligations.

This success means that the support of the Rainforest Fund has contributed to the protection of a total of 1 million hectares of indigenous territories and protected areas in the critical Selva Central area and ensured that the Asháninka people of the Ene and Tambo valleys are in a position to determine their own development.

Republic of Congo - Pygmy

This is a very exciting new project that may well set a precedent within Africa as a whole, aimed at developing a new law recognising the rights of Pygmy peoples in the Republic of Congo. This has started extremely well and the Rainforest Foundation has successfully secured the funding required to deliver the whole two and a half year programme which we hope will result in the first law recognising indigenous rights in the whole of Africa. Detailed analyses of the current legal context have been carried out, both looking at Congolese law and at the international instruments that Congo has signed up to. Now the project has moved into the field work phase, where teams of Pygmy peoples and Congolese legal specialists will be working together to support communities in identifying the key issues that they can address through developing legislation and those that will need other actions. The next steps will be to develop a series of texts for the new law, in a workshop and consultation process that will involve communities, civil society and the government. We hope that the final law will be submitted to the Congolese parliament in March 2007.

South Kivu - DRC - Batwa women

This is a pilot project supporting Batwa women in Eastern DRC in developing their own small businesses, using local materials. The communities involved have developed a large and ambitious development plan and this project is starting a pilot scheme, where the community members can test their ideas on a small scale. The women involved have been trained in setting up and running a small business and are developing models of their products – mostly baskets and hand made clothing - to test them in local and international markets.

DRC - Forest peoples

This project has been aimed at ensuring that forest communities and the organisations that work with them in the Democratic Republic of Congo are having an influence on the forest laws and regulations currently being developed in that country. This project has been a very exciting one and may well have yielded some real advances in terms of halting the spread of the logging industry throughout DRC. We and our partners are now moving into a phase where we will be doing a great deal of work at a community level.

The political process leading up to elections and the transfer from the transitional to some future elected government have meant that legislative and policy processes are going very slowly. Nonetheless, the Congolese organisations have been very active in following up the processes and continually sharing information between them, along with lobbying and applying pressure to the government and the donors to take forest communities into account throughout. In addition, a guide to the forest law for community and local group use has been produced in French and the four national languages: Lingala, Swahili, Kikongo and Chiluba. In September, work began on supporting communities in mapping their lands and in 2006, the Rainforest Foundation UK will be starting a large scale programme to support communities nationwide in participatory mapping.

Monitored by RF Norway 2005

Protecting the Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples in South-eastern Peru

Long term objective: The territorial, social and cultural rights of the isolated indigenous peoples in South-eastern Peru are recognized and secured.

Location and rationale: The rainforest in South-Eastern Peru may be home to the largest number of isolated and unidentified indigenous people on earth. Due to increased pressure on their territories, which threatens the lives and integrity of these extremely vulnerable indigenous populations, the Peruvian indigenous organisation AIDESEP has since the mid 90s been engaged in defending their rights. In 2005, with support from RF Fund, RF Norway could provide AIDESEP with its first direct funding for this work, thus enhancing the quality and intensity of their efforts.

Aims for 2005: 2005 was a pilot phase where the main aims were to identify and evaluate the relevant actors and factors at the local, regional, national and international level, and elaborate an effective long-term strategy and action plan for the protection of the isolated indigenous peoples.
Additionally, a fulltime lawyer was hired to work with government policy on isolated indigenous peoples. The full project (2006 onwards) is intended to result in a permanent solution for these populations in voluntary isolation, with their territorial and cultural rights legally recognized in Peruvian law and adequate protective measures on the ground.

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.

Recognition of the traditional land rights and communal village system of the Tau Taa Wana in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Project Objective: The bargaining position of the Tau Taa Wana people is improved to such a degree that they enjoy full rights to control the natural resources in their traditional rainforest area and protect their cultural identity.

Location: The project is located in the area around the side rivers of the Bulang river in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The organization Yayasan Merah Putih Palu, which carries out the project as a partner to RF Norway, is based in the province capital of Palu, Central Sulawesi, from where they conduct advocacy work directed towards the province government.

Activities and rationale: The project objective is to be reached by obtaining political recognition of the traditional territories of the Tau Ta’a Wana people and of their communal village system within the decentralized system of local Indonesian government.

The project relates to the Rainforest Foundation mission in that it seeks to protect an indigenous forest dwelling community by securing their rights to increased self-determination in their traditional area. The Tau Ta’a Wana people have carefully adapted their culture to the forest environment in which they live, but they are now facing pressure from neighbouring migrant communities that want to take over their land, and from the Indonesian government that aims to relocate them and change their cultural ways to fit the Indonesian mainstream. The project addresses some of the main issues that lie within the Rainforest Foundation Mission Statement by strengthening the political rights of the Tau Ta’a Wana people, protecting their cultural viability and improving their opportunities for managing forest resources in a sustainable manner.