Possible Futures for Indigenous and community-based organizations' self-determination in land and water-based projects in Perú and Colombia

My research aims to collaboratively generate evidence to support increased participation of Indigenous communities in landscape scale conservation and climate adaptation projects in the Andes Amazon region. With the support of the 2024 Tinker Field Research Grant, I traveled to Perú and Colombia and interviewed key collaborators to help guide the formation of my research questions. These collaborators represent Indigenous community-based organizations deeply engaged with biocultural land and water-based projects in both Perú and Colombia. I started by reaching out to organizations with whom I had previous contact. Through these initial conversations, I was connected to several Indigenous-led projects in the region. I ultimately identified two key projects who I plan to deepen my partnership with and conduct participatory action research (PAR) with. One is an Indigenous alliance working to strengthen territorial governance in two major Amazonian watersheds. The second is a bottom-up initiative to start an Indigenous University for Tikuna people interested in revitalizing traditional botanical and ecological knowledge. I am currently in the process of co-defining our partnership, research questions, and a PAR plan with both organizations. In both cases, I will employ participatory mapping and ethnobotanical methods to support these organizations in advancing their work while advancing my own dissertation research.