Tell Us How to Spend 7 Million Dollars, Please, Government Asks Indigenous Amazon Tribes

In a mission to fight deforestation, Colombia is seeking advice from indigenous tribes on how to spend more than $7 million to safeguard the threatened Amazon rainforest.

Protecting the Amazon is not only vital in reducing deforestation, but also in slowing global climate change as the world’s largest tropical rainforest absorbs large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Environment Minister Ricardo Lozano explains that involving tribal communities is key to the Amazon’s protection.

“For this government, indigenous communities are fundamental in the construction, definition and implementation of specific policies and actions that guarantee the conservation of their cultural and environmental values,” says Lozano. “That is why we value their knowledge and wisdom.”

The money comes from the hundreds of millions of dollars provided by Norway, Germany and Britain to a United Nations-backed anti-deforestation program called REDD+ that provides countries with funds for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.