With the immense joy after the multitudinous reunion that took place in Belém do Pará, where the diversities of our Amazon embraced again to give rise to the X International Meeting of the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum; those of us who have been articulated in this bet for more than 20 years, today we celebrate the definition of the new venue of this process towards what will be the XI FOSPA: Bolivia, in the Amazonian cities of Rurrenabaque and San Buenaventura in the department of La Paz.
This decision, preceded by an important process where each National Committee articulated to the FOSPA dynamics, had the opportunity to postulate itself as host of the Eleventh International Meeting, was ratified by the FOSPA International Committee where delegations from eight of the nine countries of the Basin converge: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname.
The definition took into account an exhaustive review of the current international and regional context and that of Bolivia, the postulated country, as well as the total fulfillment of essential criteria for the country that receives the flags that have been waved with vitality as FOSPA in the Amazon and recently, with greater determination, from the brother country of Brazil, which did an excellent job as host of the X FOSPA, as was evidenced in the meeting held recently in front of the Guamá River, at the Federal University of Pará, where our most recent declaration as a process was made known: the Pan-Amazonian Declaration of Belém.
Some of the criteria taken into account for the selection of the new venue had to do with the postulated country having a recent participation in FOSPA, with an organizational structure active in the dynamics of the process, with a National Committee and -hopefully- Local Committees, with the commitment to maintain and strengthen the methodological approach built more recently since Tarapoto in Peru and passing through Mocoa in Colombia and Belém do Pará in Brazil and that the active organizations in the country are involved and participating in the initiatives of action, the heart of our process.
It was also valued that the geopolitical situation allows the elected National Committee, in support of the International Committee, to position the problems and political agendas of the Basin, to guarantee the continuity of the articulated work in the Amazon countries, the dynamics of the action initiatives, the FOSPA in movement, the FOSPA International Committee and the international alliances such as the World Social Forum – WSF, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin – COICA, the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network – REPAM and the World Assembly for the Amazon – AMA; that the country is committed to the construction of an intersectoral agenda where the participation of Andean Amazonian women is protagonist, and that it has important alliances with cooperating institutions, logistical conditions for the development of the central event and solid relations with social organizations that allow the materialization in the territories of the bets built collectively in defense of the Amazon.
As we have said, from the FOSPA International Committee, today we celebrate this definition where the Articulation FOSPA Bolivia assumes the flags of the process and the responsibility to energize the materialization of our collective bets in the coming years. We count that, just as it organized and carried out the Pre FOSPA in the city of Trinidad in June 2022, participated with one of the most outstanding international delegations in the X FOSPA and actively participated in the Houses of Knowledge and Senses, and in the construction of the Declaration of Belém do Pará, this articulation will carry out an orderly and strengthened action as host of the XI International Meeting of the Pan-Amazonian Social Forum projected for the month of July 2024.
We highlight that Bolivia successfully hosted the VI FOSPA in 2012 in the Amazonian city of Cobija, department of Pando. And that, as stated in the nomination document: «For the BOLIVIA FOSPA ARTICULATION the XI FOSPA will not only be the event in July 2024 but it will be a process that has already begun, with site visits, articulation of agendas between institutions, thematic, regional and local preparatory events. Our interest in presenting Bolivia’s candidacy is to initiate a process that will contribute to strengthening indigenous organizations and the defense of the rights of Mother Earth in the Bolivian Amazon, which will have repercussions on the Amazon region as a whole».
We begin then, with the guidance of our Bolivian brothers and sisters, the process of joining, projection and materialization of the FOSPA bets contained in our recent letters and declarations as a process, which are the fundamental basis of the road towards Rurrenabaque and San Buenaventura where we will soon embrace each other again.
FOSPA International Communications
November 23rd, 2022
Web translation DeepL.com
