In the Colombian Amazon, the indigenous people of the Pirá Paraná River have been successful in registering their traditional knowledge as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation. With support from our local partner, Gaia Amazonas, the indigenous organisation ACAIPI gained approval from the Colombian Ministry of Culture for a Special Safeguard Plan for their territory. They have since submitted a more complete dossier for the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Hee Yaia~Kubua Baseri Keti Oka is the term used for the traditional knowledge of the different ethnic groups of the Pirá Paraná River, in the Colombian Amazon, for governing their world, for the health and wellbeing of the planet and all her species. This particular traditional knowledge is maintained through their rituals and ecological governance practices.

The Pirá Paraná River, a tributary of the Apaporis River, is located in the south-eastern Colombian Amazon, in the department of Vaupés and close to the border with Brazil. It is inhabited by a population of 2,000, who belong mostly to the Barasana, Eduria, Makuna, Bará, Tatuyo, Tuyuca and Carapana ethnic group, living in 17 settlements and more than 20 malocas (traditional communal houses). Together they have formed an indigenous association, ACAIPI (Association of Indigenous Captains and Authorities of the Pirá Paraná), led by the elders and traditional authorities.

The traditionall territory of ACAIPI, in this remote area of the Colombian Amazon, covers 540,000 hectares (5,400 km2) of tropical forest. It is afforded some protection as an "indigenous resguardo", but despite this legal title and collective "ownership" by the indigenous communities, the subsoil belongs to the nation and remains vulnerable to mining and other interests. Right now, the rainforest and a number of sacred sites are under threat from gold-mining.

Indigenous myths of the Pirá Paraná tell how, in the beginning, the creation of the world was chaotic but the Ayawa (the Creators) also created the knowledge for keeping order. They created Hee Yaia Keti Oka, which connects the rhythms of the Universe and Nature with daily and ritual human activities. When humanity emerged the Creators handed over this knowledge so that all people would know how to maintain their own wellbeing in harmony with the rest of life. These stories of origin provide the laws of origin, the Earth Jurisprudence or Earth Laws, for living in the forest.

The Pirá Paraná is considered the "heart-centre" of a larger sacred territory called Hee Yaia Godo ~Bakari (territory of the Jaguars of Yuruparí), a macro-region in the Amazon formed by the river basins of the Negro and the Caquetá-Japurá Rivers, which run through Colombia and into Brazil. The indigenous people consider this territory to be like a human body which breathes, feels and has organs that enable it to function and live; and the organs of the territory are a system of sacred places that contain the vital and spiritual energy. The ancestral knowledge for governing the sacred Yuruparí territory - expressed in rituals, sacred instruments, sacred plants like Yagé, Coca and Tobacco, and the wisdom concentrated in a network of sacred sites - was handed to all ethnic groups of this part of the Amazon, both in Colombia and in Brazil. It is only in the Pirá Paraná that this knowledge has been well-preserved, because it is still practised.

The indigenous communities, through ACAIPI, looked to our partner, Gaia Amazonas, to support them in registering their traditional knowledge as Intangible Cultural Heritage, for the defence of their culture and of their sacred territory, which is increasingly threatened by external interests such as mining. On 5^th August 2010 the National Heritage Council approved a Special Safeguard Plan for this traditional knowledge of the sacred Pirá Paraná River basin, and duly included it in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation.

Prior to the application process, the elders were clear that only certain knowledge can be revealed as the knowledge itself is sacred. Likewise the locations of the sacred sites should not be revealed.

Gaia Amazonas has been accompanying indigenous organisations of the Colombian Amazon for two decades. It has enabled exchanges between indigenous people within the wider Yuruparí territory, across the borders of Colombia and Brazil, and with Africa, to share experiences in indigenous education, environmental governance, and their traditional knowledge of the territory.

In the face of growing threats in the Amazon, Africa and elsewhere from land grabbing and mining, we advocate for the protection of Sacred Sites systems and indigenous territories. UNESCO recognition of traditional knowledge and other intangible cultural heritage is one of the options to explore with other partners and local communities facing similar threats.