Lima, May 7, 2008.- Representatives of the academic community, indigenous peoples, environmental authorities and NGOs of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru met this Monday and Tuesday in Lima to reflect upon and formulate proposals to help guarantee the success of the Regional Biodiversity Program in the Andean-Amazon Regions (BIOCAN Program) being implemented by the Andean Community Member Countries and the CAN General Secretariat with the support of the Finnish Government. 

The most noteworthy among the proposals formulated are to establish a regional information system on Amazon topics; promote an integrated vision of the territory, both Amazon and Andean; revalue the experiences and wisdom of indigenous peoples; systematically organize experiences on which new Andean legislation can be based; strengthen the capacity for international negotiation; and prepare actors to prevent threats to the Amazon by the mining industry and biofuels. 

These proposals were drafted in a workshop for reflection that opened on Monday with the analysis of development models, of the Good Living paradigm and of the prospects for Amazon development and continued on Tuesday with the preparation of proposals and recommendations to enrich the BIOCAN Program.  

This program, launched in December 2007, aims to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the CAN Member Countries’ Amazon region through the conservation and sustainable use of its biological diversity in a way that is equitable and respectful of cultural diversity.

Its aim is to strengthen the capacity of actors involved in biodiversity management to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Andean Biodiversity Strategy, with emphasis on the use of information tools for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity resources and territorial planning in a way that is equitable and respectful of cultural diversity.

During the workshop for reflection, the participants were in agreement that “the present development model is unsustainable” and that “Good Living” constitutes a revitalizing cosmovision that is not new, for it already exists among indigenous peoples.” They pointed out that what is most important is harmony, a balance between the material and the spiritual, together with interculturality, social dialogue, participation, and the equitable distribution of wealth.   

They consider it necessary to base natural resource management models in the territory on planning tools and the participation of local communities, so that their own models for managing biodiversity can be shaped through the application of ancestral knowledge and local know-how.