Big Bet: Center Amazonian indigenous experiences in the development of climate governance systems.
Project: Support the development of mechanisms to incorporate indigenous people’s aspirations and traditional knowledge into climate related decision-making processes. Through an action-oriented study focused on identifying intercultural coordination mechanisms, this project seeks to develop advocacy tools, promote intercultural agreements between national authorities and indigenous governments to combat climate change, and sustain the largest and best-preserved continuous tropical forest on the planet, located in the northern region of the Amazon River.
Luisa Fernanda Bacca Benavides is a Colombian lawyer with a master’s degree in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity from the University of Essex, UK. Her professional journey has been dedicated to championing human rights, with a focus on strengthening civil organizations and local governments. With over seven years of experience within the United Nations system, she has crafted strategies to prevent internal displacement and protect the territorial rights of indigenous peoples.
For the past five years, she has played a pivotal role in shaping public policies to safeguard the territories and rights of indigenous communities on national, regional, and international levels, particularly in areas related to sustainable development, climate change, and biodiversity. As the Coordinator of Advocacy and Strategic Communications at Gaia Amazonas Foundation, she led the design and implementation of advocacy strategies and campaigns to raise awareness among policymakers and global environmental agendas about the vital role of involving Amazonian indigenous peoples in conservation efforts.
In her research endeavors, she advocates for an intercultural interpretation of law, aiming to elevate indigenous laws and traditional knowledge as academic and political tools to challenge the colonial narrative that has historically overshadowed indigenous peoples’ understanding of their territorial rights.