A Transboundary Indigenous Congress and Declaration: Forests, Peoples, and Climate in the Amazon Borderlands

Keywords: Remote sensing; Climate change; Indigenous; borderlands; Amazonia; Peru; Brazil
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 40

Abstract

Trans-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration has never been more challenging with a pandemic that limits in-person interaction. NASA SERVIR’s approach of connecting “space to village” has the advantage of relying on computer and satellite-based scientific tools, but the disadvantage of targeting remote rural landscapes (Himalayas, Mekong, Sahel, Amazonia etc…) where communication is challenging. NASA SERVIR’s goal is to help local communities use satellite data to
address critical challenges in water resources, weather and climate, and land use.
SERVIR Amazonia’s University of Richmond Applied Science Team, the Amazon
Borderlands Spatial Analysis Team (ABSAT), uses existing relationships, NGO
partners, and social media communication channels to maintain participatory
conversations with remote Indigenous communities and associations in Acre, Brazil and
Ucayali, Peru. These conversations allow ABSAT to contribute to the goals of
Indigenous stakeholders in these culturally and ecologically rich landscapes. The
“Apiwtxa Congress- Threats, Protection, and Development at the Amazonian Border” in
Acre, Brazil included several ABSAT partners from both sides of the border. More than
100 attendees represented the ten Indigenous organizations and numerous borderland
Indigenous communities as they discussed how illegal road construction, logging,
mining, trafficking, and state corruption threatens their territories, forests, rivers,
wellbeing, and cultural heritage. The congress provided a unique opportunity not only
for borderland Indigenous groups to codify their goals in an 8-point declaration, but also
for ABSAT to collaborate with the congress and jointly determine how ABSAT and SERVIR Amazonia’s “space to village” products and services might contribute to these stated goals.