The Declaration of Túpac Amaru: ‘Carbon markets dispossess our territories and criminalize our ways’

Climate & Capitalism || From September 15 to 19, representatives from indigenous groups in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Bolivia met to discuss the growing threat of so-called “carbon markets” to their sovereignty and self-determination. The meeting closed with adoption of the declaration published below.

The Declaration of Túpac Amaru

The Indigenous Peoples, nations and nationalities of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, and Paraguay, gathered in the native Kichwa community of Túpac Amaru in the district of Chazuta, San Martín region in Peru, from 15 to 19 September 2025, within the framework of the “Meeting of Indigenous Peoples on Carbon Markets: Impacts, Initiatives, and Resistance” declare:

We reaffirm our spirituality, autonomy, self-determination, and the law of origin of our peoples, nations, and nationalities in the fight against the dispossession of our ancestral territories.
We demand that our Indigenous territories be valued as spaces for life and conservation, based on our historical ancestral practices and knowledge that we have been practicing for millennia, without the need to create additional categories of imposed conservation.
We reject the violations of our fundamental, collective, spiritual, and ancestral rights, as well as the conflicts over land ownership, the division and disharmony of our communities and representative organisations, and the loss of autonomy caused by the expansion of carbon markets, such as REDD+, and other green economy mechanisms that are false solutions to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
We warn that carbon markets promote the dispossession of our territories and the criminalisation of our traditional and subsistence practices through deceptive, abusive, long-term, unclear, and unsocialised contracts with our constituents, disregarding our organisational structures and procedures.
We denounce that activities linked to carbon markets and other forms of extractivism generate differentiated impacts on the bodies and lives of women, children, and adolescents in the territories, in addition to stigmatisation, persecution, and criminalisation of human rights defenders.
We denounce that the carbon projects underway in several of our territories have failed to meet the required safeguards, let alone deliver the promised benefits.
We reject all actors involved in the operation of these false solutions, such as: the certifying bodies VERRA, CER CARBONO, COLCX, Biocarbon Standard, and Gold Standard; developers such as CIMA Cordillera Azul, SERNANP, and the Ministry of the Environment in Peru; Yauto SAS and Biofix consultores SAS and others in Colombia; Green Carbon in Bolivia, and others in Ecuador and Paraguay; and validation and verification bodies such as AENOR International SAU, ICONTEC, Ruby Canyon Environmental, the Rainforest Alliance, and others in Colombia.
We condemn the fact that the buyers of carbon credits are the world’s leading polluters, such as Total Energies, Shell, BHP, Chevron Petroleum Company, Glencore, Geopark SAS, Organizacion Terpel SA, and others.
We are not willing to be complicit in their image-washing or any form of extractivism. We hold private banks and investors, and their useless and ineffective safeguards, such as the World Bank, KFW, IDB, and others, accountable for the economic, social, and cultural impacts of these carbon markets on our territories, and at the same time we call for transparency in their financing.
We urge States to fulfill their role as guarantors of our rights and remedy the impacts we denounce, and therefore reject their complicity and inaction.
We reject the exclusionary conservation policies of states and other private institutions for the creation of Protected Natural Areas on our ancestral territories, ignoring our right to free, prior, and informed consultation and to binding consent for our decisions.
We denounce that conservation organisations such as the IUCN, the Moore Foundation, and others support exclusionary conservation models that undermine our own vision of development and self-determination.
We demand that Pachamama be respected and recognised as a subject of law to guarantee the well-being of future generations.

We declare ourselves in permanent mobilisation and subscribe to this declaration:

Bolivia

Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae
Coordinadora Nacional de Autonomías Indígenas de Bolivia (CONAIOC)
Nación Monkoxɨ de Lomerío

Paraguay

Organización de Mujeres – Comunidad Nueva Promesa del pueblo Sanapaná – Miembro de la OCUN
Representantes de la Red de Promotores Jurídicos Indígenas de la región Occidental.
Comunidad El Estribo del Pueblo Enxet – Base de la CLIBCH

Colombia

Pueblo Inga del medio Putumayo
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Municipio de Villagarzón Putumayo (ACIMVIP)
Asociación de Autoridades Indígenas del Pueblo Cofán (AMPII-CANKE)
Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca – Çxhab Wala Kiwe (ACIN) Pueblo Nasa.

Peru

Federación de Pueblos Indígenas Kechwa Chazuta Amazonía (FEPIKECHA) y sus bases Túpac Amaru, Rebalse Chazuta, Alto Chazutayacu, Pongo del Huallaga, Ankash Yaku de Achinamisa, Sinchi Runa de Llucanayaku y Allima Sachayuk Siyambayok Pampa.
Federación de Pueblos Indígenas Kechwas del Bajo Huallaga San Martín (FEPIKBHSAM) y sus bases Shilcayo, Chipeza, Ishkay Urmanayuk Tununtunumba, Ricardo Palma y Callanayaku.
El Consejo Étnico de los Pueblos Kichwa de la Amazonía (CEPKA) y sus bases Anak Pillwana, Winkuyaku, Puerto Franco, Mishkiyakillu, Solo del Río Mayo, Wayku y Mushuk Belén.
Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampis (GTANW)
Consejo de Mujeres Awajún Wampis Umukai Yawi (COMUAWUY)

Ecuador