The Global Alliance
of Territorial Communities

A COP26 presence in Glasgow highlights land rights, traditional knowledge, and the protection of life.

The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) — a political platform of indigenous peoples and local communities — represents 35 million people living in forest territories from 24 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, covering over 958 million hectares of land. This was an international effort. To help me visualise scale, I made a 1:1 paper mockup in our Finsbury Park studio. This was a rough-and-ready. I document everything yet I don’t have any photos of this sadly! Brand foundations were set by Purpose’s São Paulo team.

The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities is made up of five organizations:

1. Indonesian Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipielago (AMAN)
2. The Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB)
3. The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
4. The Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)
5. The Network of Indigenous and Local Populations for the Sustainable Management of Central African Forest Ecosystems (REPALEAC)

DEMANDS

Land Rights We, the indigenous peoples and local communities, maintain profound spiritual, cultural, social, and economic bonds with our lands, territories, and resources. These connections form the very foundation of our identity. We demand access to our territories to protect them and live according to our self-determination. Free, Prior & Informed Consent We demand our right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) as a means for our fundamental right to self-determination. FPIC empowers us when it comes to projects that affect our lives and territories. We demand our full and active participation so nothing about us can happen without us.

Direct Financing We demand for adequate, direct accessible financing be made available to support our self-determined climate actions on the ground. Investing in our territories is crucial to combat climate change, desertification, and biodiversity loss for the whole of humanity.

Protection of Life We demand an end to the violence and unjust criminalization we endure while safeguarding our territories. It is our collective voice that calls for the respect of our rights.

Traditional Knowledge The core of our cultural identities and livelihoods lies in our shared traditional knowledge and innovation. We demand for our knowledge to be accorded respect and protection, and that all policies formulated within our territories proactively integrate them.

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With photography being sourced from multiple sources, of multiple groups, it was extremely important to keep careful and up-to-date asset management across our distributed teams. Collaboration was made easy using cloud-based storage, and Figma’s browser-based review tools.

The impact that we achieved in Glasgow would not have been possible without your invaluable support in designing all the beautiful artwork to make our cause more visible. On behalf of our children, youth, women & elders, who are in the communities, and the rivers and mountains of all our territories, I want to thank you personally for your support, and assure you that we will continue to carry forward this struggle, which belongs to all of us.