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Nora Fernandez Fernandez
On March 7, the closing ceremony of the training course "Strengthening Capacities for Territorial Defense and Sustainable Environmental Management" (CEU Diploma in Sustainable Environmental Management of the Amazon of the URJC), aimed at indigenous youth of the Amazon basin.
The course is organized by the Fund for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) - COICA, Conservation International (CI) and the Rey Juan University Carlos. In addition, the Government of France has financially contributed to the development of the initiative.
According to Cástor Díaz Barrado, director of the Center for Ibero-American Studies of the URJC and coordinator of the work group of this university, "the objective is to preserve the lifestyles of the indigenous populations and preserve the great lung that is the zone of the Amazon for the whole world”. "For this reason, we launched this university extension course 'Diploma in Sustainable Environmental Management of the Amazon' that recognizes the high commitment of youth in their training, as a way of making visible the importance of preserving nature and the very idiosyncrasy of indigenous peoples”, says Díaz Barrado.
The course has been completed by 75 students from 43 indigenous peoples, coming from 8 countries of the Amazon basin; Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. Classes were held virtually in three languages; Spanish, Portuguese and English.
Fulfilling several objectives of the 2030 Agenda, "the course provided materials such as mobile phones and computers to be able to follow it, despite the meteorological difficulties, which were not few," says Díaz Barrado. “Apart from King Juan Carlos, the Francisco de Vitoria Institute of International and European Studies of UC3M has collaborated in the development of the contents”, adds the coordinator of the URJC.
After the delivery of diplomas, the Technical Secretary of FILAC, Alberto Pizarro Chañilao, took the opportunity to insist on the importance of giving continuity to these regional training processes, “within the framework of the revitalization and revaluation of the science of Indigenous Peoples. This knowledge has a comparable and complementary role to that of science to preserve nature and life in common with it”.
To learn more about the initiative, you can check the following video: Sustainable Environmental Management of the Amazon.