Nobel Peace Prize to the Indigenous movement?

Profile: Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is an indigenous rights activist from the Kankana-ey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. She is the founder and current leader of the Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education).

Tauli-Corpuz has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as the chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Through the promotion of indigenous rights across the world, she has worked with tropical forest conservation, climate change, social justice and women’s rights issues.

Profile: Raoni Metuktire

Raoni Metuktire is probably the world's best-known Indigenous leader and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. He has been a prominent figure in the fight to protect the Amazon and the rights of Indigenous peoples in Brazil. Raoni has made several trips worldwide and has met a series of leaders, including King Leopold III of Belgium and France's Jacques Chirac.

In the late 1980s, Raoni began collaborating with British musician Sting. A joint world tour in 1989 would later prove significant in opening the world's eyes to the ongoing destruction of the rainforest and the violation of Indigenous peoples' rights.

This tour aimed to gain recognition of a separate territory for the Kayapó people living along the Xingu River in Brazil. The International Rainforest Foundation was founded with national chapters in several countries, including Norway, the UK, the US, and Japan. In 1991, after two and a half years of campaigning and pressure, a 49,000 km2 territory was created for the Kayapó. They have also gained recognition of other essential areas forming a crucial belt of preserved rainforest in Brazil.

One of Raoni's biggest causes has been the fight against the development of "Belo Monte" - one of the world's largest hydropower plants. Plans to build a hydropower plant on the Xingu River first emerged during the military dictatorship, but after large-scale mobilizations led by Raoni, the project was halted. Despite massive opposition and international attention, the plans were later revived.

Raoni's tenacious fight to preserver the rainforest and ensure recognition of Indigenous rights has paved the way for and inspired thousands of people, not least among other indigenous peoples.

Profile: Juan Carlos Jintiach

Juan Carlos Jintiach is an Indigenous leader from the Shuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and is currently the Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC). The alliance includes large Indigenous organisations from across the tropics, from COICA and APIB in the Amazon to AMAN in Indonesia and REPALEAC in Africa. Rainforest Foundation Norway has long-term partnerships with these organisations in the fight for Indigenous rights and nature protection.

Jintiach has also represented the Indigenous peoples of Latin America in the Convention on Biological Diversity and has served as a co-chair and a focal point in the indigenous people’s caucus within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

For a long period of time he was one of few Indigenous voices on the global climate arena. Now he is joined by many. Jintiach has worked tirelessly to connect community concerns with global policy discussions, aiming to build consensus.