PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission at ZRCPA meeting for campesina women
PBI-Colombia has posted: “We accompanied @Justiciaypazcol [Justice and Peace Commission] in the PERLA AMAZÓNICA Peasant Reserve Zone [ZRCPA] on the occasion of an ADISPA [the Association for the Integral Sustainable Development of the Perla Amazónica] women’s meeting. They identified the differential risks in financial matters that peasant women suffer and the challenges that this implies.”
The ZRCPA is located near Puerto Asis in the department of Putumayo, which is situated in south-west Colombia near the border with Ecuador.
PBI-Colombia accompanies the Justice and Peace Commission that in turn accompanies Jani Silva, the president of ADISPA.
Amnesty International has highlighted: “Jani Silva has dedicated her life to protecting the Amazon and the life that exists in it from efforts by armed groups and multinational companies to take control of her territory.”
The Guardian has also reported: “Silva says she has seen firsthand the effects of big business in Putumayo, where, she believes, oil companies ‘exploit irresponsibly’ and contaminate the environment.”
And PBI-Colombia has noted: “Over the years, one of the great challenges they have faced has been the arrival and expansion of oil companies.”
In December 2023, Tavia Grant at The Globe and Mail reported: “As Canada vies for a seat on the United Nations human rights council [in 2027], Indigenous leaders and environmental advocates have launched a coordinated campaign drawing attention to Canadian companies operating in the Amazon region and raising questions about their environmental and human rights track record.”
A joint submission to the United Nations from 33 non-governmental organizations, including Amazon Watch, says Canada’s failure to take adequate measures to regulate the conduct of Canadian companies abroad “has contributed to the systematic violation of human and environmental rights in the Amazon.”
The twelve recommendations listed in the report (on pages 12-13) include a call on the Canadian state to “adopt policies to eliminate and prevent the criminalization of defenders and protests, considering that Canadian extractive companies operating in the Amazon have encouraged this treatment.”
The two projects in Colombia noted in the report are the Vancouver-based Libero Copper & Gold Corp. Mocoa copper and molybdenum mine (that is “in the exploration phase”) and the Calgary-based Gran Tierra APE-La Cabaña oil exploration project (now closed but leaving behind severe environmental impacts).
We continue to follow the situation for the ZRCPA, the department of Putumayo and the Amazon region.
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