Rainforest Concern - Yaigoje Apaporis National Park

A sacred site deep in the Colombian Amazon

Since 2008, Rainforest Concern has worked in partnership with Gaia Amazonas to obtain legal recognition of ancestral indigenous land.

A hotspot for both biological and cultural diversity, the Yaigojé Apaporis remains a pristine wilderness. It is located deep in the Colombian Amazon close to the Brazilian border and is now the third largest national park in Colombia at around 1.1 million hectares. It was created at the request of indigenous communities who were being threatened by multinational mining companies.

After persistent mining threats to their land, the National Park was created in order to further protect not only the Yaigojé Apaporis forests but also the natural resources in the sub-soil. The park is now managed by the indigenous communities who use their vast knowledge to preserve this area of Amazon rainforest.

Rainforest Concern continues to work with Gaia Amazonas with the Triple A corridor project (see below).

An indigenous ceremony for the spirits of wwater and the guardians of seeds. By Gaia Amazonas

The Yaigojé Apaporis is the traditional territory of the Makuna, Tanimuka, Tuyuca, Cabiyari and Letuama peoples. These communities consider themselves part of nature, and live in reciprocity with the forest. Meditation and shamanic rituals cultivate a strong, spiritual connection with surrounding wildlife which heavily influences the way they care for the environment.

We are entering our real education: where we came from, where we received the sacred elements to care for our territory, how to bring up our children, how to care for our gardens.

Guillermo Rodriguez of the Majiña ethnic group

News

Gaia Amazonas and the Triple A corridor project

An initiative to create the world's biggest biological corridor in the Amazon which will span eight nations.

Find out more

The battle against mining in the Colombian Amazon

Multinational companies seeking to exploit loopholes in areas under indigenous control called 'resguardos' can do so if the state allows it. For this reason, indigenous communities cannot fend off extractivist companies such as COSIGO Resources, a Canadian gold-mining company who began evaluating possible mining opportunities three years ago. In response to this threat, the local communities and their shamans decided that the only way to protect the Yaigojé Apaporis and its sacred forests was to change its status to a national park. With the support of Gaia Amazonas and Rainforest Concern together with the Association of Indigenous Captains of the Yaigojé Apaporis River, the park was created in 2009.

An indigenous ceremony for the spirits of wwater and the guardians of seeds. By Gaia Amazonas
The Apaporis river by Gaia Amazonas
A community longhouse near the Miriti River
Martín von Hildebrand, Gaia Amazonas and Peter Bennett, Rainforest Concern
Gaia Amazonas
Apaporis river
A "Maloca", an ancestral long house
An indigenous ceremony for the spirits of water and the guardians of seeds