The Keepers of the Earth Fund (KOEF) is proud to announce that in 2023 we awarded over half 1,000,000 {dollars} in small grants to assist Indigenous tasks on points associated to neighborhood empowerment for land protection and autonomy; the transmission of Indigenous information; conventional drugs and Indigenous spirituality; meals sovereignty and Indigenous economies; and the assorted types of resistance to mining for the power transition.
In whole, 66 Indigenous tasks and collectives have been financed for a complete quantity of $512,267. The funds have been despatched on to Indigenous communities and collectives and Indigenous grassroots organizations in 21 nations.
At Cultural Survival, we worth cultivating long-term relationships with our companions. Subsequently, we awarded 22 grants to organizations that had obtained grants in prior years, representing one-third of this 12 months’s whole. Following our programmatic precedence of supporting Indigenous girls and youth, 16 organizations led by Indigenous girls and 9 tasks both led by or straight supporting Indigenous youth have been financed.
The Keepers of the Earth Fund is an Indigenous-led fund at Cultural Survival designed to assist Indigenous Peoples’ advocacy and neighborhood improvement tasks globally. Since 2017, we’ve supported 304 tasks in 41 nations via small grants and wrap-around assist totaling $1,571,969. Grants go on to Indigenous communities, collectives, organizations, and conventional governments to assist tasks designed by them and in accordance with their Indigenous values. Predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Survival makes use of a rights-based strategy in our grantmaking methods to assist grassroots Indigenous options via the equitable distribution of sources to Indigenous communities.
Meet our grant companions who’re working to strengthen their communities to defend their lands and autonomy.
Pariri Indigenous Affiliation – (Munduruku), Brazil
In Pará, Munduruku Peoples of the center and higher Tapajós are experiencing a rise in enterprise megaprojects supported by the State, that are exacerbating the issues of invasion, expropriation, and violence. The Pariri Indigenous Affiliation acknowledges the need to strengthen the safety of the Munduruku Sawre Myubu territory, for which they designed an academic undertaking to coach younger individuals in territorial surveillance. Funding from KOEF is supporting Indigenous resistance towards the growth of State megaprojects in Brazil.
Indigenous Confederation of the Higher Amazon (COIDAM) – (Murui-muyna, Muinane, Bora, Okaina, Andoque, Nonuya, Inga, Carijona, Miraña), Colombia
The Indigenous Confederation of the Higher Amazon was shaped in 1984 by representatives of the 4 areas of the Resguardo Predio Putumayo with the intention of defending their rights. This 12 months, to commemorate the thirty fifth anniversary of the official supply of the reserve’s title, COIDAM organized an eight-day assembly with the 9 Indigenous Peoples who reside there. The target is to strengthen group and participation in political decision-making areas in relation to tasks, packages, and authorities improvement plans.
Nationwide Entrance of Indigenous Peoples (FRENAPI) – (Bribri, Cabecar, Brunkaj, Bröran, Maleku, Chorotega, Ngöbe), Costa Rica
The Nationwide Entrance of Indigenous Peoples was created by eight Indigenous Peoples with the goal to strengthen their communities from outdoors intrusion. They supply instruments to Indigenous leaders on key points reminiscent of rights, land and territory, spirituality, and self-governance. With the assist of a KOEF grant, FRENAPI are organizing the Second Assembly of Indigenous Spiritualities and the Third Assembly of Change of Experiences of Defenders of the Earth and the Territory. Moreover, they are going to be engaged on a brand new version of their Indigenous Regulation Primer information.
Amazon Commune Group – (Kichwa), Ecuador
The Amazon Commune Group is made up of 15 younger individuals from the Napo province, a territory that’s below invasion by alluvial gold mining concessions. Confronted with the issues brought on by mining, such because the unfold of illnesses and environmental destruction, Amazon Commune is enterprise a marketing campaign in protection of life, water, and territories to lift consciousness among the many Kichwa inhabitants about these risks. The undertaking, carried out at the side of different neighborhood organizations, seeks to strengthen the Indigenous guards and affect mining regulation measures.
Communities in Resistance of the Sierra de Las Minas and Nim Poqom Middle – (Maya Poqomchi, Maya Q’eqchi), Guatemala
Communities in Resistance was created to defend and restore the territory of Rex Awaj from extractivism and interventions by the Guatemalan State. In collaboration with the Nim Poqom Middle and financed by the Keepers of the Earth Fund, this undertaking is strengthening processes of political organizing of the collaborating communities. Workshops, assemblies, land conferences, and radio packages are being carried out with a deal with neighborhood resistance and group for the protection, safety, and restoration of the Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi territories of the Sierra de las Minas.
Carey Ecotourism Providers Cooperative – (Maya), Mexico
The Carey Ecotourism Providers Cooperative was established within the city of Isla Enviornment, Campeche, in 2005. They’re devoted to community-run tourism as an alternative choice to fishing, which till just lately was the primary supply of earnings for the neighborhood. This new exercise has promoted the inclusion and management of girls whereas defending, restoring, and selling the surroundings of this coastal territory. Right this moment, the neighborhood is threatened by the rising curiosity of personal firms wanting to purchase out and dispossess them of their ancestral lands. In response, the Cooperative, with the assist of the Keepers of the Earth Fund, launched a undertaking to strengthen community-run tourism with an environmental, cultural, and social dedication geared toward youngsters and youth to make sure the safety, restoration, conservation, and monitoring of the surroundings and territory.
Motion in Protection of Life and Territory (MODEVITE) – (Tseltal), Mexico
Motion in Protection of Life and Territory is a company made up of Indigenous individuals from 11 municipalities within the state of Chiapas, who got here collectively in 2013 to defend the territory towards the impacts of freeway building from San Cristóbal de las Casas to Palenque. Confronted with a posh sociopolitical context and rising violence within the communities, the 11 municipalities shaped committees to coach youth in Indigenous information in regards to the Tseltal justice system. With the assist of a KOEF grant, they may use their cultural information, self-organization, and participation in neighborhood life to higher defend their territory.
San Francisco Magu Group- (Otomi), Mexico
The Otomí neighborhood in San Francisco Magu, positioned within the Municipality of Nicolás Romero in central Mexico, is threatened by actual property megaprojects Bosques del paraíso and Seven Cities of the Bicentennial, which plan to construct greater than 1 million homes. It’s estimated that these tasks will devastate 10 hectares of pine oak forest and a further 184 hectares of forest of their territory. With the assist of a KOEF grant, the Zeferino Ladrillero Human Rights Middle is offering authorized recommendation and workshops on monitoring, safety, and protection of human rights for neighborhood leaders.
San Francisco Suc-Tuc Group – (Maya), Mexico
San Francisco Suc-Tuc is a neighborhood positioned within the state of Campeche. They’re combating for autonomy in decision-making and an unbiased type of authorities, with out the intervention of the State and political events. The undertaking, supported by the Keepers of the Earth Fund, seeks to strengthen their technique of neighborhood autonomy via workshops and conferences with organizations, teams, and communities which have related authorities programs. This alternate of experiences will strengthen their very own types of group.
Newa Misa Daboo – Newar (Nepal)
Lots of of years of discrimination and cultural undermining by the monarchy have been dangerous for cultural id, traditions, and native information of the Newar Peoples in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their historic settlements are in peril of being destroyed and westernized. Given a earlier optimistic expertise with the declaration of an autonomous cultural space for one historic website, they wish to lengthen the identical protections to 10 extra historic cities. A crew from Newa Misa Daboo, a women-led Indigenous group, will manage trainings, orientations, advocacy, and interplay with native governments for the preservation of their settlements and lands.
Mayangna Tunba Barakna Uni Amasau Indigenous Group Faculty – (Mayangna), Nicaragua
The Mayangna Tunba Barakna Uni Amasau Indigenous Group Faculty, whose title means “Home for the event of data,” was based in 2021 below the path of the Mayangna de Amasau authorities. This undertaking was created to design instructional modules addressing the direct impacts of mining actions. The modules will deal with the Nicaraguan communities affected by the rise in mining concessions and gold exports by the State and will probably be included within the college’s curriculum. The target is to strengthen neighborhood governance and supply instruments to defend their pure sources, territories, and cultural lifeways.
Yvy Pyte Tekoha Guasu Indigenous Group – (Guarani paĩ tavyterã yvy pytey), Paraguay
The Yvy Pyte Tekoha Guasu neighborhood is an historic territory made up of seven villages. It is among the few tekoha guasu that live on within the area after nationwide coverage separated the territories into particular person communities. With the assist of a KOEF grant, they’re organizing work conferences, finishing up and monitoring land demarcation, restoring broken forests, updating maps, and finishing up procedures to attain full possession of their territories.
The Mixteco Indígena Group Organizing Mission (MICOP) – (Mixteco), U.S.
There are over 70,000 Mixteco migrants in the US, who’re susceptible to cultural id loss. To handle this problem, the Mixteco Indígena Group Organizing Mission began organizing studying exchanges between an Indigenous chief and a Mixteco researcher to debate experiences of navigating various multicultural, sociopolitical, and financial realities. By these exchanges, MICOP additionally goals to counter the racism, prejudice, and isolation Mixteco migrants face within the U.S.
Indigenous Coalition of Migrants from Chiapas (CIMICH) – (Tzotzil, Tzeltal), Mexico
The Indigenous Coalition of Migrants from Chiapas is a grassroots group that works with migrants and households from the jungle and Los Altos de Chiapas. Given the fixed violence confronted by migrants, CIMICH works to strengthen their technical and organizational capacities to enhance their high quality of life. Among the many actions funded by their undertaking are workshops on human rights, Indigenous information, protection of land and territory, and methods of buen vivir (good dwelling).
5 Land and Indigenous Rights Defenders
The necessity for emergency assist for defenders of Indigenous Peoples is rising globally. At Cultural Survival, this 12 months we’ve supplied emergency funds to a number of Indigenous rights and land defenders, together with 5 Indigenous leaders who face critical threats associated to their neighborhood work securing land and Indigenous rights. The violence towards them consists of bodily assaults, imprisonment, or political persecution. KOEF funds have been utilized for medical and psychological care, authorized protection, and safety and meals, amongst different pressing particular person, household, or collective wants.
