30-09-2025 | di COOPI

Amazonia+: Collective efforts to protect the Amazon forest

The Amazonia+ Program, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), FIAP Spanish Cooperation, and Expertise France (EF), has given rise to a consortium of implementing partners in support of AICS. This consortium is led by COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale, in partnership with the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD) of Colombia and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) of Ecuador.

The purpose of Amazonia+ is to strengthen the capacities of the countries of the Amazon basin—in this case Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador—to prevent, monitor, control, combat, and remediate deforestation, forest degradation, wildfires, and their causes. Through the Consortium, efforts are coordinated among academic, social, and international cooperation organizations, with the aim of reinforcing local and regional capacities to face the challenges of deforestation, wildfires, and environmental degradation in the Amazon basin. In this context, several concrete actions have been carried out to date:

• Boosting research: A call for proposals was launched to support research projects, research seedbeds, and scientific studies. Its objective is to strengthen academic training and research, and to fill knowledge gaps so that results contribute to halting deforestation, environmental degradation, and wildfires in the Amazon.
• International training in fire management: The program supported the implementation of the WTREX course in Puerto Carreño, Colombia, in collaboration with the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).

The event, held from September 7 to 16, was the result of inter-institutional cooperation that brought together the Amazonia+ Program, UNGRD, the Municipality of Puerto Carreño, FAO, and the Government of Canada. The course gathered 80 women from Colombia, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, and Bolivia, who strengthened their capacities to respond to wildfires from the perspective of integrated fire management. As additional support, COOPI provided 27 sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), 3 type-C first aid kits, 3 stretchers, and antivenom serums.

Support was also provided for the creation of three forest brigades for integrated fire management and community brigades in Cotacachi and Calacalí (Ecuador), and Puerto Inírida, Guainía (Colombia), with the participation of 107 people. These training spaces contribute to improving response capacities in emergencies and addressing them from the perspective of integrated fire management.

The initiative had the active participation of entities from the national emergency response systems, including Civil Defense, Firefighters, Army, Police, National Natural Parks, and the Navy.

COOPI has been working in Colombia since 1999 through various humanitarian interventions in favour of communities located in rural areas strongly affected by long periods of drought or floods, with interventions for the reconstruction of post-earthquake houses and activities for the protection and of the rights of children migrated due to the internal armed conflict.