Description
The COAMA (Consolidation of the Colombian Amazon) programme was established in 1989 as a medium-term strategy for the Colombian Amazon. The primary has been to accompany the indigenous peoples in strengthening their cultural identity, recuperating their autonomy and preserving the tropical forest.
The programme has encouraged a process of decentralisation in the Colombian Amazon; the empowerment of local people, cultural respect and understanding, and preservation of the tropical forests. It is a participatory and grassroots process, whereby indigenous communities have gradually gained the experience and confidence to manage their own projects, and begun to evolve regional projections for their own education and health programmes, self-government, territorial and natural resource management.
COAMA has facilitated inter-cultural collaboration between indigenous organisations, NGOs and government entities, for the protection of cultural and biological diversity. Furthermore, it is a peaceful process, which reflects the cultural and environmental realities of the Colombian Amazon.