Participatory video and grassroots indigenous mobilisation in Madre de Dios, Peru

Since 2008 PPI has been directly assisting COINBAMAD, FENAMAD’s indigenous council of the lower region of Madre de Dios, building its capacity for the production of locally-produced video materials. COINBAMAD’s Communications Program (Programa de Comunicación) draws on the expertise of three indigenous video technicians with differing levels of training and expertise in the use of video recording and editing equipment. COINBAMAD’s program works closely with indigenous human rights and environmental indigenous activist and 2007 Goldman Prize winner Julio Cusurichi, who since 2007 directs and hosts a weekly local TV news show focusing on indigenous, social and environmental issues. The link with Julio Cusurichi and with the TV program ‘Voz de América’ provides a powerful platform through which indigenous leaders can communicate with their constituents and with a wider audience, as well as with local, regional and national policy-makers.

An important step in the process of creating capacities and allowing the establishment of broader links and alliances is the upcoming trip by Julio Cusurichi to the Island of Palawan (Phillipines), during which he will take some of the films edited by COINBAMAD on the impacts of gold mining and oil and gas exploration upon the indigenous communities and isolated indigenous groups in Madre de Dios, and initiate a process of direct exchange with indigenous leaders and communities affected by large-scale proposed mining in Palawan. See also Linking Communities and Resource Rights: developing local-global feedback mechanisms for policy advocacy on biocultural diversity