UNODC and UNICEF sign a partnership to protect indigenous areas in the Amazon

Brasilia, October 25, 2024 – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) formalized a new strategic partnership at a meeting in Brasilia-DF, strengthening joint efforts to strengthen indigenous territorial protection in the Amazon region are consolidated. The project ‘Surveillance, Preparedness and Response System for Indigenous Territorial Protection in the Brazilian Amazon’, implemented by UNODC, is part of the global program ‘Preparedness and Early Action to Protect Yanomami Indigenous Communities from Social and Natural Disasters’, a collaboration of UNICEF with ECHO. This initiative aims to integrate technical and indigenous knowledge and to promote and strengthen integration between indigenous communities and government agencies.

The project aims to strengthen monitoring and response systems for territorial protection in the Amazon region, ensuring the participation of indigenous communities and integration with government systems at national and subnational levels. Planned actions include training workshops on territorial protection and the prevention of crimes that damage the environment, such as deforestation and illegal mining, national and international exchanges, the construction of a monitoring and surveillance area on the Munduruku territory and the purchase of equipment for indigenous associations. and organizations.

The UNODC Representative in Brazil, Elena Abbati, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, emphasizing that the union of mandates and expertise of the two agencies strengthens not only the response to the needs of vulnerable populations, but also the prevention and response to environmental crimes and other illegal activities that threaten the sustainable development of the region. The meeting was attended by UNICEF’s Representative in Brazil, Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, UNICEF’s Deputy Representative in Brazil, Layla Saad, and the agency’s experts, Gregory Bulit, Emergency Response Coordinator, Vanessa Wirth, Head of Protection against Violence, and Yuri dos Santos Silva, Executive Officer of the Representation.

Also present were UNODC experts, the Executive Management Officer (Ana Paula Penante), the Coordinator of the Environmental Crime Prevention Unit (Alexander Walsh), the UNODC-UNICEF Project Manager (Elisangela Sousa) and the Coordinator of the Tapajós Project ( Marcela Ulhoa). . The collaboration aims to ensure that indigenous people’s local and community knowledge forms the basis for structuring responses to threats.

SAR-TI – SAR-TI is an initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), supported by the Italian Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI). The aim is to support and promote cooperation between indigenous associations and organizations, government institutions and civil society to structure, strengthen and integrate mechanisms for preparation, monitoring, early warning and response to environmental and other crimes in indigenous territories, with a focus on areas affected by illegal gold mining in the Amazon.