Indigenous Governance in the Peruvian Amazon
Indigenous Governance in the Peruvian Amazon
Our Objective
This project explores Indigenous Territorial Governance Schemes (ITGS) in Madre de Dios, analyzing their effectiveness in promoting environmental justice, community well-being, and nature conservation. In close collaboration with the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and its Tributaries (FENAMAD), the research aims to identify governance structures that can serve as replicable frameworks for Indigenous and local governance in similar tropical forest regions worldwide.
Figures
The project was launched on January 1, 2023 and is currently in progress.
Summary
This project focuses on exploring and strengthening Indigenous Territorial Governance Schemes (ITGS) in Madre de Dios, Peru. It aims to map and define diverse governance models across Indigenous territories, examining how different knowledge systems—Indigenous, academic, technical, and state—are integrated or excluded in decision-making processes.
By evaluating the impact of ITGS on environmental justice, community well-being, and long-term sustainability, the project seeks to better understand how these systems contribute to the protection of both people and nature in tropical forest regions.
The project is carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern and FENAMAD, which supports the design and implementation of activities, including the Indigenous Researchers Program, a key step in strengthening Indigenous leadership and regional representation in governance dialogues.
Project Connections
Part of the solutionscape
Maintaining multifunctional landscapes in a tropical forest frontier
Timeline
Indigenous knowledge, on the record—Dr. Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel’s role in GEO-7
Project Update July 21, 2025
Global Environment Outlook 7, the flagship assessment of UN Environment Programme (UNEP), was released on 9 December 2025 at UNEA-7 in Nairobi. It synthesizes evidence across climate, biodiversity, land degradation, and pollution, and frames action around the transformation of five systems: energy, food, materials and waste, economy and finance, and environmental management. One achievement sits behind the pages: a consent-based way to bring Indigenous and local knowledge into a global report, on the record and with accountability. For the first time in the GEO series, Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge was systematically included through a documented process, with dedicated space in the report and in the Executive Summary for decision-makers. Dr. Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel, an Associated Senior Researcher at the Wyss Academy for Nature, played a central role in that work. As co-convenor of the Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge Task Force, she helped guide how this knowledge was brought into GEO-7 in collaboration with the report’s Co-Chairs. At the same time, she served as Coordinating Lead Author for one of the report’s Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge chapeaux and was part of the wider author team that helped shape this contribution across the assessment. The process mattered as much as the outcome. GEO-7’s approach combined several elements: a dedicated task force, Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge content embedded across all chapters, five stand-alone chapeaux, and a series of dialogues with representatives of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The dialogues report informed both GEO-7 and the Executive Summary, helping ensure that Indigenous and local perspectives were not treated as an add-on, but as part of the evidence base used to inform global environmental decision-making. The same standards guide our work with Indigenous communities in Peru, with Sarah-Lan in the lead. Since 2023, the Wyss Academy for Nature, FENAMAD, and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) have co-developed an Indigenous governance project in Madre de Dios. The focus is on characterizing Indigenous territorial governance schemes and assessing their impacts on the well-being of people and nature. It also includes developing strategies to support these schemes and strengthening leadership through an Indigenous Researchers Program. The continuity is deliberate: the principles that helped shape GEO-7—consent, review, attribution, and accountability—are the same ones that guide Sarah-Lan and the team’s work with Indigenous communities in Peru. In practice, this means that knowledge is not extracted and translated elsewhere. It is co-produced, reviewed with participants, grounded in relationships, and carried forward in ways that recognize authorship, strengthen governance, and connect local realities to larger processes of environmental change.
Collaborative approach with Indigenous Communities
Project Update June 1, 2025
In the Peruvian Amazon, Indigenous communities face unique challenges in asserting their territorial rights despite established rights to self-determination (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007) and the vital knowledge they possess for managing their lands. Through a mixed-methods approach, the project involves Indigenous communities as equal partners in the research process, ensuring that Indigenous knowledge is recognized and valued. This collaborative approach includes interviews, policy analysis, and participatory methods, with a focus on systems thinking to identify leverage points for sustainable governance. The project also examines the challenges and opportunities for scaling these governance models to other tropical forest regions, creating adaptable frameworks for just and sustainable governance practices. Ultimately, the project aims to provide valuable insights and policy recommendations for enhancing Indigenous governance, promoting environmental justice, and safeguarding biodiversity. It hopes to influence global policy by demonstrating the effectiveness of Indigenous-led governance in achieving social and environmental goals. By fostering inclusive research methods and creating scalable governance models, the project looks to support the long-term sustainability of Indigenous territories and the ecosystems they protect.
Key Milestones
Project Update January 10, 2025
Engagement and codesign (2023-2024): Initial engagement and codesign with Indigenous organizationsMapping and characterization of ITGS (2023-2024): Mapping of Indigenous actors and governance schemes.Scientific knowledge dialogues (2024): Promotion of dialogues between academic and Indigenous knowledge through international conference sessions.Implementation of Indigenous Researcher Program (2024-2025): Training and inclusion of Indigenous researchers in the project.Knowledge integration analysis (2024-2025): In-depth interviews to evaluate the role of diverse knowledge systems.Environmental justice and well-being assessment (2025): participatory data collection to evaluate impacts on communities and nature.Leverage points analysis (2025): Multistakeholder workshops to validate findings on challenges and opportunities and identify leverage points.Global environmental assessment (2025): Inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlook 7 (GEO-7) through an international taskforce
Other Projects in this Solutionscape
From knowledge to action: Information for conservation in Tambopata
From knowledge to action: Information for conservation in Tambopata
TambopataLab: Incubating solutions for conservation
TambopataLab: Incubating solutions for conservation
