About this Event
🌱About us
TERRA Foundation supports locally-led conservation, reforestation, and social entrepreneurship initiatives around the globe, with a focus on Latin America's Andes-Amazon region.
🌿 About this event
Artisanal gold mining, oil spills, and illegal resource extraction are devastating ecosystems and threatening the survival of Indigenous and local communities across the Andes-Amazon region. This October, we invite you to an inspiring evening dedicated to the environmental and social costs of resource extraction - and to what genuine, just conservation could look like.
We are honored to welcome:
- Dr. Ana Patricia Sandoval-Calderón, PhD in Sciences from Utrecht University and Sustainability Project Advisor at TERRA Foundation. Based on ten years of research in Bolivia's Apolobamba National Park, her talk "Life After Mining in the Bolivian Andes" examines spatial and temporal data on livestock, wildlife, and biodiversity to unpack the social and environmental costs of mining in the Andes.
- Nick Middeldorp, PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and researcher, presents "Indigenous Peoples at the Extractive Frontier: Regional Patterns and Community-Led Responses," based on his experience across Latin America over the past decade and his PhD fieldwork in Colombia's North Cauca region. His talk looks at violence against Indigenous peoples across the region and zooms in on how the Nasa People´s Indigenous Guard (Kiwe Thegnas) protect their territory and communities amid the presence of armed groups tied to illegal mining and drug trafficking. He closes with recommendations on strengthening Indigenous-led protection and community cohesion in the face of ongoing violence.
- William Silva Rodríguez, legal representative of ASOMINTRACONAL and co-founder of Reserva Minga Kuri in Putumayo, Colombia. His talk, "From Extraction to Restoration: One Miner's Path to Rebuilding the Amazon," traces his shift from over a decade in mining and machinery to closing his own extraction business in 2023 and leading ecological restoration - with roughly 25 of the reserve's 74 hectares already restored and about 50,000 native trees planted. He calls on companies, authorities, and funders to match the community's work with independent assessment, dialogue, and investment in the region's recovery.
- Liliana Jáuregui Bordones, Director at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the Netherlands, will address the unequal burden of environmental degradation in the Amazon- examining why women and Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected, and how communities are resisting and building resilience in response. Building on lessons from PIDDA and Amazon Rights in Focus, she outlines what donors and policymakers should do to support these efforts.
- See more in the Line-up section.
🌳Join TERRA Foundation's efforts
The Andes-Amazon region is running out of time. Deforestation and desertification are accelerating, and no single organization or funder can address this alone. Join us this October to hear directly from people working on the ground, connect with others in the sector, and find out where your support - whether that's expertise, partnership, or funding - is needed most.
Conservation, environmental justice, and hope for this region and its communities depend on what we build together, starting now.
Event venue & nearby stays
The American Women's Club of The Hague, 5 Bisschopstraat, Den Haag, Netherlands
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.