Component 4

 Design and implementation of monitoring and protection plans in indigenous areas. 

The Project supports activities which train and equip indigenous communities on both sides of the border in order to provide a border vigilance service for the government, and for their own security needs. Using expertise gained on the Brazil side of the border, the Project has provided training to the tribes in conducting regional border patrols.  A transboundary coordination meeting was held to serve these purposes. The objectives of this meeting were: (1) to discuss and promote the improvement of biocultural protection in the Suriname-Brazil border region; (2) to bring closer institutions and indigenous communities which are willing to protect the border area; (3) to identify and monitor the common problems of protection in the border area; and (4) to establish transboundary strategies of identification, communication and actions of protection (see “First Transboundary Meeting on Environmental Protection for the Brazil-Suriname Border Region” attachment ). Governmental institutions, NGOs and private sector companies from Brazil and Suriname participated in this effort. For example, Suriname’s National Institute for Environment and Development in Suriname (NIMOS) has been engaged to facilitate training in environmental monitoring and enforcement.  NIMOS will have long-term involvement in environmental training in the Brazil-Suriname border region.

The development of physical infrastructure for monitoring coordination is also supported by the project. In order to better integrate the protection of indigenous lands in Tumucumaque, Brazil; to provide logistical support for field protection activities; to develop remote monitoring and planning of activities; and to support ongoing and strategic capacity building of the indigenous park guards, a vigilance and protection training center was opened in the city of Macapá () in December 2005; additionally, two vigilance posts are ready for assembly in the Tumucumaque Indigenous Park, Brazil. To supply the vigilance monitoring posts and help the park guards protect the region, all necessary vigilance material – including radios, solar panels, and batteries – has been purchased and sent to the Park post locations.  In addition, in 2006, the indigenous institution APITIKATXI coordinated the process of construction of four canoes in the Tumucumaque region to complement the posts (the vigilance activities require guards to have transport equipment in order to cover larger areas). In Suriname, in July 2006, a vigilance unit was established with the Trios in the village of Kwamalasamutu at the headquarters of the village chief.  This unit will serve as the core center and a satellite post will be developed in the future. 

This page was last updated on Thursday June 14, 2007.