By Lorena Mendoza Egúsquiza
Puyo, Ecuador.- In a strategic step to consolidate our governance and ensure continuity in leadership training processes across the Amazon, the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE) signed an Inter Institutional Cooperation Agreement.
This gathering brings together Indigenous representatives who are members of the Alliance, with the active participation of the Autonomous Territorial Governments of the Datem in the northern Peruvian Amazon. These governments have been consolidating their model of self-governance grounded in self-determination, territorial defense, and the comprehensive management of their natural assets.
The agreement, signed by the President of CONFENIAE, Mr. José Esach, and the President of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance, Uyunkar Domingo Peas, establishes a joint working framework aimed at strengthening CONFENIAE’s organizational structure and supporting the implementation of programs and projects outlined in its Life Plan.
A Step Forward for the Living School of the Amazon – EVA
One of the central pillars of the agreement is the support for the educational program “Living School of the Amazon” (EVA), conceived by the Amazon Sacred Headwaters as a leadership training space for youth from Amazonian nationalities. The program is articulated with CONFENIAE’s grassroots organizations in Ecuador, as well as with AIDESEP and the nine Territorial Governments of the northern peruvian Amazon (Shawi, Chapra, Awajún, Kandozi, Shiwilu, Kukama-Kukamiria, Wampis, Achuar, and Inka).
The agreement includes support for strategic fundraising management, scholarship student selection processes, the hiring of teachers and knowledge keepers as facilitators, monthly budget execution, and coordination of periodic training processes, highlighting collaboration with Amawtay Wasi University.
This instrument reaffirms both institutions’ commitment to defending territorial rights, Indigenous self-governance, and the knowledge systems of Amazonian nationalities, under the principles of unity in diversity, interculturality, and self-determination.
With this signing, the Amazon Sacred Headwaters and CONFENIAE consolidate a cooperation framework that strengthens organizational and educational processes defined by the nationalities themselves, in alignment with their Life Plans and their vision for the future of the Amazon.