Listening First
Working sessions with Indigenous leaders from five territories covering nearly 400,000 hectares in the Colombian Orinoquía. Information and relationship steps ahead of formal FPIC.
This week we held two working sessions with Indigenous leaders from Carpintero Palomas, San Luis del Tomo, Ríos Tomo y Hueberi, Río Muco Guarrojo, and Santa Teresita del Tuparro.
These five territories cover nearly 400,000 hectares and are home to more than 1,600 families. The leaders spoke from their Life Plans: the need for potable water, solar energy, closer health services, education support, stronger food security, backing for the Indigenous Guard, and the concrete work of protecting species and forests that are already under pressure.
These sessions were not consent meetings. They were steps of information, relationship, and clarity — the necessary groundwork before any formal Free, Prior and Informed Consent process with each territory's legitimate authorities.
Our sequence remains unchanged:
Communities First.
Stewardship Always.
Environmental Assets When Ready.
Near-term resources that answer priorities already written by the communities, and longer-cycle environmental asset pathways, move in parallel. Both depend on documented authority, transparent oversight, and the community's own voice setting the order of work.
Thank you to the leaders who gave their time, to the Colombia field team, to the Ethics & Transparency Committee, to the colleagues supporting ESG Impact Membership preparation, to our partners, and to the guests who joined to listen.
The listening continues. The work follows.
