23 May 2011: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $1 million technical cooperation project aimed at building the capacity of indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin in Latin America to more effectively participate in the consultation processes, negotiations and decision making related to climate change, as well as better manage the impacts of climate change on their communities.

The two-year project, developed in partnership with the Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indigenas de la Cuenca Amazonica (COICA), the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), will also support pilot projects and monitoring and evaluation. IDB will specifically support finance-related capacity building in climate change, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD), and the voluntary carbon markets for indigenous leaders in five countries and up to 250 communities in the Amazon region. Technical assistance for carbon mapping and land management planning will also be provided.

The project was launched at COICA headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, on 18 March 2011. A second project launch event will be held at the IDB headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on 24 May 2011, with representatives from COICA, EDF and WHRC, to coincide with the 10th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, taking place from 16-27 May 2011, in New York, US. [IDB Press Release]