Evaristo Nugkuag

Evaristo Nugkuag (Cologne, 2010)

Evaristo Nugkuag Ikanan (* 1950 ) is a Peruvian human rights activist and environmentalist.

Evaristo Nugkuag is an Aguaruna Indian and studied medicine in Lima . For many years he has organized resistance against the destruction of the habitats of indigenous peoples on a local, national and international level.

In 1977 he co-founded the Consejo Aguaruna y Huambisa (CAH), which represents 45,000 inhabitants from 140 communities in the Amazon and advocates alternative forms of land protection, health care, education and human development and became one of the most influential organizations of the indigenous peoples of South America has been.

Nugkuag was the founding president of AIDESEP (Indigenous Association for Development in the Peruvian Rainforest) , founded in 1980 , in which indigenous peoples living in the Peruvian rainforest came together on a national level.

A congress of representatives of indigenous peoples from Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador co-organized by AIDESEP led to the founding of COICA (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica), an umbrella organization of the national Indian organizations from the nine countries bordering the Amazon basin . The goals of COICA are to preserve the tropical rainforests and secure the land rights of the indigenous peoples.

Evaristo Nugkuag was chairman of the Climate Alliance from 1992 to 1995 .

Awards

• 1986: Right Livelihood Award
• 1991: Goldman Environmental Prize

Web links

Commons : Evaristo Nugkuag  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Goldman Environmental Prize: Evaristo Nugkuag (Eng.)
• Evaristo Nugkuag Ikanan and the AIDESEP group received the Alternative Nobel Prize "for organizing the protection of the rights of the Indians in the Amazon basin" (PDF; 298 kB)