MSc thesis defence Andrés Martínez Cano: Indigenous Leadership in REDD+

Supervisor: Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen
Examiner: Siera Vercillo

Date & Time: August 21st, 3:00 p.m.
Location: Leeuwenborch, room B0101 or online: link to MS teams meeting

This thesis examines how Indigenous Peoples in Colombia can lead REDD+ and Voluntary Carbon Market initiatives by enforcing constitutional rights, integrating Indigenous Ecological Knowledge (IEK), and advancing capacity-building. Drawing on the Capabilities Approach and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and using document analysis and interviews, it finds that technical skills must be matched by reciprocal institutional capacity-building, that integrating IEK requires reforms like the court-ordered redesign of RENARE, and that territorial, culturally grounded education is key for intergenerational leadership. While Indigenous leadership is already possible in certain contexts, achieving it more broadly will require rights-based capacity-building, legal recognition of Indigenous governance frameworks, and education rooted in Indigenous pedagogies, changes that are both a governance priority and a constitutional obligation.