On October 11, 2018, the Brazil Institute hosted five representatives of Brazil’s quilombola communities, including members of the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Quilombola Rural Communities (CONAQ) and the Amazon Conservation Team of Brazil (Ecam). The representatives were visiting the United States through the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program to discuss the rights of marginalized groups in Brazil and the United States, and to exchange experiences on each country’s policies for social inclusion, particularly the experiences of marginalized Afro-descendants and Indigenous populations.

The Brazil Institute learned about both organizations’ work to increase the visibility of Brazil’s quilombola communities and to promote and protect the rights of their residents. The project Sustainable Territories (Territórios Sustentáveis), carried out by three social organizations—Ecam, Agenda Pública, and Imazon—unites Amazonian populations and public authorities in the Calha Norte region of the State of Pará to offer sustainable strategies for local development and help reduce the region’s economic dependency on mining. Another project, New Technologies/Sharing Worlds (Novas Tecnologias/Compartilhando Mundos), promotes the use of accessible and free Google tools, such as Google Earth, Open Data Kit, and YouTube, to distribute information and data on sustainable land practices, thereby helping indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and small agricultural producers manage their territories ecologically. The Brazil Institute and the delegation also discussed avenues for fostering greater dialogue in both Brazil and the United States on the role and rights of traditional populations.

To learn more about CONAQ, Ecam, and Brazil’s traditional populations, click on the links below:

• National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Quilombola Rural Communities (CONAQ) Official Website
• Amazon Conservation Team of Brazil (Ecam) Official Website
• Territórios Sustentáveis Project
• Novas Tecnologias/Compartilhando Mundos Project

Image by José Cruz/Agência Brasil