Photo: Jani Silva receives a copy of the Global Witness “Roots of Resistance” report (that feature an article by Silva on pages 54 to 63) from Javier Garate (Senior US Policy Advisor – Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness; and member of the Peace Brigades International-Canada Board of Directors) at the 25th anniversary gathering, October 24, 2025.
The Commission of Justice and Peace has posted on social media: “On October 24 and 25, in the commemoration of the 25 years of the Amazon Pearl Campesina Reserve Zone [ZRC]. 25 years defending life, peasant identity, and territory, protecting the Amazon and strengthening community organization.”
The Commission of Justice and Peace accompanies the Amazon Pearl Campesina Reserve Zone (ZRC). In turn, Peace Brigades International has accompanied the Commission of Justice and Peace for 31 years.
The ZRC brings together 23 villages across 22,000 hectares more than 600 families from Bajo Putumayo in Colombia. There, it is the campesinas themselves who decide what is grown and where it is grown and how the land is cared for.
The ZRC faces threats from armed groups seeking territorial control and from oil and mining companies seeking to exploit the natural resources there.
The Peace Research Institute of Frankfurt (PRIF) recently highlighted: “The protection zone is under massive threat from paramilitary groups… In 2021, the human rights organization ‘Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz’ revealed that militias were planning to expel and even assassinate Jani Silva and other leading members of the ADISPA.”
Last month, Global Witness explained: “Jani Silva is a prominent social leader and central figure within Colombia’s peasant movement. In 2000, she helped create the Perla Amazónica Peasant Reserve Zone in Putumayo – one of Colombia’s first protected peasant reserves, with biodiversity preservation at its core.”
The Colombian magazine Voragine also recently described Silva as “the one who faces guerrillas, paramilitaries and oil multinationals alike, with no weapons other than words and a genuine concern for their territory.”
25 years of defending life, territory and biodiversity.
At this time, we also remember Silva’s visit this past June 2025 to Wet’suwet’en, Gitxsan and Gitanyow territories, and extend our warm wishes to the Amazon Pearl ZRC on its 25th anniversary.
