Portafolio, one of Colombia’s leading economic newspapers, recently published a special feature about the REDD+ Matavén Project and its contribution to tropical forest protection and the strengthening of Indigenous communities in the Orinoco-Amazon transition region of Colombia.
The publication highlights how REDD+ Matavén has become one of the world’s largest Indigenous-led REDD+ projects, protecting more than one million hectares of tropical forest within the Matavén Indigenous Reserve in Vichada, Colombia.
Since 2013, the Cubeo, Curripaco, Piapoco, Piaroa, Puinave, and Sikuani peoples have led efforts to protect the territory, conserve biodiversity, and strengthen Indigenous governance, while promoting programs focused on healthcare, education, access to clean water, food security, and community development.
Carbon credits as a tool to protect the territory
The publication highlights that REDD+ Matavén carbon credits are certified under Verra’s VCS and CCB international standards, ensuring rigorous monitoring, verification, and reporting processes.
Through this climate finance mechanism, the project has strengthened multiple actions across the territory, including:
- Territorial monitoring and protection: strengthening prevention and monitoring actions against deforestation alongside the Indigenous guard and traditional authorities.
- Social and community programs: investment in initiatives related to healthcare, access to water, housing, education, and organizational strengthening.
- Food security and sustainable livelihoods: promotion of productive projects adapted to the cultural and environmental context of the territory.
- Protection of biodiversity and water sources: conservation of strategic ecosystems within one of the most important ecological connectivity regions between the Orinoquía and the Amazon.
Today, REDD+ Matavén directly benefits more than 22,000 Indigenous people and continues to position itself as a climate action model built from within the territory.
Indigenous governance and long-term conservation
One of the main aspects highlighted in the publication is Matavén’s Indigenous governance model. Through ACATISEMA and the territory’s self-governance structures, communities directly participate in decision-making processes related to project implementation and benefit distribution.
This approach has helped consolidate a long-term conservation strategy based on territorial strengthening, transparency, and community participation.
After more than a decade of implementation, REDD+ Matavén continues to demonstrate how climate finance can become a concrete tool to protect forests, conserve biodiversity, and strengthen the well-being of Indigenous communities.
Read the full Portafolio publication here: Portafolio.co