Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and Indigenous ... - Amazon Fund

on the banks of rivers and in land slopes as defined in each region, as well as obligations which
refer to the prevention and control of forest fires (Articles 184, 202, 206 and 244 of the Legislative
Decree 2811 of 1974).
In cases of overlap with natural protected areas67 and IR the Colombian law briefly
mentions the most common cases regarding National Natural Parks (NNP); however, it does not
elaborate on the implementation of special regimes for these cases. Likewise, Article 7 of Decree
622 of 1977 indicates that: “The declaration of a National Natural Park is not incompatible with the
constitution of an indigenous reserve; so when for reasons of ecological and geographical order,
it is necessary to include all or part of an area occupied by indigenous groups inside the System
of National Natural Parks, the corresponding studies will be jointly advanced by INCODER and
the Colombian Institute of Anthropology, with the intent of establishing a special regime which
benefits the indigenous population and which will respect the permanence of the community
and their right to the economic use of the renewable natural resources, observing technologies
that are compatible with the objectives of the Parks System noted for the respective area.” 68
With relation to forest use by indigenous people in areas overlapping with NNP, in principle
they are generally limited to those survival activities which are not against the objectives of the
conservation of the area. 69 This means that the traditional activities of use and enjoyment of natural
resources are permitted, but it needs to be clarified to what extent the indigenous people can define
the economic, social and cultural development in their own territory beyond the environmental
limitations and the activities considered to be traditional in this overlapping context.
In this regard, it is important to consider that, on one hand, the conservation of the
areas considered strategic by the Colombian State, cannot be superimposed on the right of the
indigenous people to define their own priorities of economic, cultural and social development
(Article 7 of the ILO Convention 169), and that, on the other hand, whatever the indigenous
people decide regarding the renewable natural resource use , their decision should respect the
67 In the Colombian Amazon, almost all of the indigenous territories overlap with the Amazonian Forest Reserve
created by the 2nd law of 1959, and 4.2% of indigenous reservations overlap with National Natural Parks (NNP).
68 The indigenous reserves to which Decree 22 of 1977 refers are matched by the Article 2 of Decree 2164 of 1995
to the concept of indigenous territory incorporated in ILO Convention 169 and to the communal lands of ethnic
groups considered unseizable, imprescriptible and inalienable in Article 63 of the 1991 PC.
69 Articles 12 and 15 Decree 1791 of 1996. In the National Natural Parks, the activities of felling, burning and
planting, hunting, fishing are prohibited, as well as forestry, agricultural, industrial, mineral, petroleum or hotel
activities or any other activity which goes against the objective of conserving the area.
Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t i o n (redd) A n d i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e s: experiences, chAllenges A n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s in t h e A m A zo n c o n t e x t 45