Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the forefront as Amazonian and global organizations join forces

25 Oct 2024

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  • The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) joins the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) as its 35th Charter Member 
  • The GLF and IPAM will support local actors in leveraging the region’s unique biological and cultural diversity to tackle global challenges 
  • The organizations will announce their alliance at the 7th GLF Investment Case Symposium, held alongside the Biodiversity COP16, in Cali, Colombia, on 25 October 

Cali, Colombia (25 October 2024) – Today, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) are uniting efforts to strengthen cooperation across Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in Brazil. 

IPAM, a scientific organization working for the sustainable development of the Amazon and Cerrado regions, joins CIFOR-ICRAF, FAO, the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the Indigenous Peoples’ Major Group for Sustainable Development, SouthSouthNorth, the Rights and Resources Initiative, UNEP, the World Resources Institute and 26 other GLF Charter Members. 

“We are confident that collaborating with IPAM will enhance our impact in the region, supporting both ongoing and future projects,” said John Colmey, GLF Director.  

“Welcoming IPAM into our Charter Member network reflects our commitment to promote innovation through knowledge alongside Indigenous and local communities in crucial regions such as the Amazon.”  

The new partnership reflects shared priorities between the GLF and IPAM, including the promotion of science, climate solutions, forests and land rights for healthy and prosperous landscapes. 

An alliance for the Amazon 

The GLF and IPAM will announce their collaboration at the 7th GLF Investment Case Symposium, where hundreds of experts and practitioners will discuss how to fund initiatives to reverse global biodiversity loss and mitigate its impacts on crucial ecosystem services such as food security and climate regulation. 

At the same time, the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity are reviewing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP16. 

Both events are taking place in Cali, Colombia – the third-largest Amazonian country, one-third of which lies within the Amazon. 

The Amazon biome, shared by nine countries and home to over 30 million people, is one of the most culturally and biologically diverse regions on Earth. However, it faces the constant threat of unsustainable agricultural expansion, illegal mining and logging, wildfires, climate change and weak governance, among other challenges.   

While deforestation rates in the Amazon have slowed, the Amazon River is once again facing a historic drought, with severe environmental and economic consequences that extend beyond the basin and are impacting the daily lives of millions.  

The GLF and IPAM are also gearing up for the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), set to be held in Belém, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon.  

“COP30 in Belém will be an important Conference for forests and will have to consolidate countries’ commitments to increase their ambitions, both on the issue of fossil fuels, sustainable development, inclusion, and on combating deforestation and alternatives to avoid it”, said André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM. 

As knowledge-based organizations, both the GLF and IPAM work to strengthen landscapes and Indigenous rights, channeling an Amazonian development model based on socio-environmental rights and local knowledge and democratizing scientific technology and data for an inclusive development in the region.  

As a GLF Charter Member, IPAM will provide strategic guidance, facilitate skill sharing across the GLF community, advocate the landscape approach and help enrich the GLF’s knowledge platform to inform policies and practices related to sustainable landscape management worldwide.  

Learn more about this new strategic alliance from leading GLF and IPAM voices at the 7th GLF Investment Case Symposium on 25 October.  

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NOTES TO EDITORS 

  • Apply for a press pass to attend the 7th GLF Investment Case Symposium online or in person at our newsroom 

 About the GLF 

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, connecting people with a shared vision to create productive, profitable, equitable & resilient landscapes. It is led by the Center for International Forestry Research-World Agroforestry Centre (CIFOR-ICRAF), in collaboration with its co-founders UNEP and the World Bank, and its charter members. Learn more at www.globallandscapesforum.org.  

About IPAM 

The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) is a scientific, non-governmental, non-partisan and non-profit organization that since 1995 has worked for the sustainable development of the Amazon. Our purpose is to consolidate, by 2035, the tropical development model of the Amazon and the Cerrado, through the production of knowledge, implementation of local initiatives and influence in public policies, in order to impact economic development, social equality and preservation of the environment. Our mission is to promote science, education and innovation for an environmentally healthy, economically prosperous and socially fair Amazon and Cerrado. 

IPAM offers support for family farming production in the Amazon and the Cerrado, Brazil. Photo: IPAM

 

André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM. Photo: IPAM

 

John Colmey, Global Landscapes Forum Director at the GLF Peatlands 2024. Photo: Global Landscapes Forum

 

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