1. General Presentation
This axis proposes to contest the logics of dispossession that cut across the Amazon region, its countries, Indigenous Peoples, and Amazonian communities. It goes beyond merely denouncing the impacts of extractivism, the financialization of nature, illicit economies, and debt. Instead, it seeks to affirm horizons of transformation and concrete proposals for a collective, regional action agenda.
Its purpose is to articulate a critical reflection on the structural forces that subordinate the reproduction of life to the logic of capital, while simultaneously making visible proposals, practices, and political frameworks aimed at territorial self-determination, climate justice, local economies, and defense strategies capable of confronting the global financial architecture.
2. Two Dimensions of Work
The axis recognizes two interrelated dimensions that must be deepened and articulated. The first is the structural or macro dimension, covering issues such as debt, fiscal justice, extractivism, financial subordination, and regional and international governance. The second is the dimension of everyday-life economies, where Indigenous, feminist, community, care, and other economies are situated—practices oriented toward sustaining life from the territories. The political and methodological wager is to connect both scales, ensuring that macro-level analysis does not remain detached from concrete practices of social and territorial reproduction.
3. Criteria for the Development of Each Theme
Every theme within this Thematic House must be developed according to six common aspects:
a. The conceptual framework that defines it, including the necessary sectoral research. b. The regional context in which it is embedded. c. Previous events (Santa Marta) and post-FOSPA activities that allow for further deepening. d. The territorial struggles already underway in relation to that field. e. Its territorialization—that is, its expression in public policies, local demands, and concrete organizational processes. f. The advocacy work already carried out or that will be required for its consolidation. g. All of the above must also be linked to debates on territorial peace, social justice, and justice with nature.
4. Strategic Fields of the Thematic House
The Thematic House is organized around four strategic fields:
- First field: Economies for Life and Transformation This field gathers practices, proposals, and economic horizons emerging from Amazonian territories to sustain life, strengthen autonomy, and contest the material organization of social reproduction. It includes debates and experiences related to care economies, community economies, agroecology, collective forms of territorial control and use, economic policy reforms, and other strategies aimed at territorial sovereignty and the expanded reproduction of life.
- Second field: Climate Finance, Governance, and False Solutions This field offers a critical examination of dominant responses to the climate crisis—particularly those that transfer power to financial, corporate, or technocratic actors. It addresses new financial instruments, debt-for-nature swaps, false solutions, regulatory frameworks, international standards, and governance mechanisms, emphasizing the urgent need to build social control, transparency, and territorial sovereignty over decisions concerning climate and nature.
- Third field: Debt, Extractivism, and Structural Transitions This field analyzes the relationship between indebtedness, financial subordination, and the deepening of the extractive model. The central thesis is that debt not only subordinates states in the management of fiscal resources but also reinforces trajectories of dependency and intensifies pressure on the Amazon. At the same time, it opens discussion on structural alternatives, including energy transition, cancellation of illegitimate debts (Jubilee), review of bilateral investment treaties, and the construction of fairer mechanisms to address debt crises and finance genuine transformations.
- Fourth field: Criminal Economies, Violence, and Territorial Fracture This field seeks to understand how criminal economies—operating alongside armed actors—penetrate and reconfigure Indigenous and Amazonian territories. They exacerbate violence, dispossession, and the erosion of community fabric by imposing criminal forms of governance that dispute territorial control. It also examines responses emerging from Indigenous autonomy, including the right to establish Indigenous guards and other self-managed mechanisms of defense and territorial control. Its analysis is essential for understanding how legal and illegal forms of accumulation intertwine in contexts of precarity, state collusion, extractivism, and territorial disputes, while identifying concrete strategies for collective protection, advocacy, strengthened territorial governance, and viable economic alternatives.
5. Pre-FOSPA Route
The preparatory process must not degenerate into a sterile accumulation of meetings. Every activity must have a concrete purpose: generating information, building agreements, reporting progress, planning advocacy, and producing shared instruments.
Four types of events are defined:
- Thematic virtual meetings (biweekly or monthly): operational follow-up, political conjuncture analysis, messaging, and document validation.
- Preparatory political seminars (public, with regional guests): strategic positioning and broadening of alliances.
- Closed articulation workshops: refinement of mandates, definition of spokespersons, task distribution, and drafting of declaration proposals.
- Territorial encounters or national pre-FOSPAs (in-person/hybrid): genuine collection of grassroots mandates to prevent the process from being captured by urban or NGO-driven debates.
Proposed timeline:
- April: preparation of axis-specific documents + webinars.
- May–July: cycle of pre-forums and preparatory activities.
- August: XII FOSPA.
6. Post-FOSPA Route
This phase is conceived as the real political translation of the agreements reached. The focus must be on converting resolutions into concrete follow-up, political pressure, campaigns, and operational agendas.
Key actions include identifying and monitoring new threats to the ecological and economic sustainability of the Amazon: expansion of criminal economies, new forms of extractivism, dynamics linked to the energy transition, and financial mechanisms that intensify pressure on territories.
Key proposed activities:
- Immediate balance meetings (results, agreements, and tensions).
- Thematic follow-up seminars (transforming mandates into advocacy agendas).
- Spaces for accountability and reporting.
- Political evaluation meetings and analysis of emerging risks to continuously update priorities for action and advocacy.
7. Regional and International Advocacy
Intervene only in spaces where there is genuine capacity to advance the agenda, build effective alliances, or exert concrete pressure. The goal is not to participate in every forum, but to prioritize those offering real political returns.
Central objectives:
- Position strong Amazonian narratives on debt, extractivism, and climate justice.
- Contest the dominant discourse on energy transition, financing, and resilience.
- Make visible concrete cases of resistance and rights violations.
- Present specific proposals, demands, and denunciations to regional and international actors.
- Issue alerts on new threats to ecological and economic sustainability, including illicit economies, territorial disciplining, and pressures arising from the energy transition and global markets.
Priority spaces:
- Regional forums of Amazonian and Latin American civil society.
- Climate summits (official and parallel).
- Encounters on debt, financing, and fiscal justice.
- Human rights and Indigenous peoples spaces.
- Academic-political forums with influence before multilateral organizations, rapporteurships, and international mechanisms.
Proposed instruments:
- Pronouncements, declarations, and regional open letters.
- Formal communications to governments and ministries.
- Shadow reports, dossiers, and case files.
- Coordinated presentations and spokespersons with unified messaging.
- Strategic communication campaigns.
- Legal actions and on-the-ground presence in territories of resistance.
Organization of the Thematic House Coordinators: Germán Niño ([email protected]), [email protected], Eva Martínez ([email protected]). Contact them for further information.