DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES

This guide by Friends of the Earth International provides a compilation of strategies and experiences for communities and Indigenous Peoples to declare their territories free from threats such as REDD, financialization of nature, mining, fracking, and GMOs. It frames these declarations as exercises of autonomy and political practices aimed at realizing collective human rights and defending traditional ways of living against an extractivist corporate model.

• Declaring a territory free from a threat is described as an "exercise of autonomy" and a political practice to realize collective human rights, including the right to self-determination and the right to timely information. The process is based on a community's decision to defend its territory from policies or activities that erode their way of living.
• The guide identifies three distinct moments when a 'free territory' declaration can occur: as a preventive measure before a project is implemented, during the implementation phase involving legal and media battles, or during consolidation to expel an existing operation such as a dam or mine.
• Common strategies for achieving these declarations include a 'preventive strategy' to share information on project impacts, the creation of a 'propositional agenda' to protect sustainable management of the commons, the use of media strategies to reach the general public, and political lobbying of local authorities.
• In Mesoamerica, the M4 (Meso American Movement against the Mining&Extractive Model) has used these declarations since 2011 as a prevention strategy. Implementation varies by country: Guatemala uses community consultations, El Salvador uses municipal structures, and Mexico utilizes legal agrarian settlements or political agreements.
• Specific examples of successful declarations include the Talamanca indigenous territory in Costa Rica declaring itself free from REDD, and the 'Gasfield Free Community' movement in Australia, where over 400 communities declared themselves coal and gasfield free.
• The struggle against GMOs has seen significant success through these declarations. In Costa Rica, 78 out of 81 cantons were declared GMO-free through agreements with local governments. In the European Union, over 170 regions and 4,500 local governments have declared themselves GMO-Free Areas across at least 25 countries.
• The document notes that declarations are not a guarantee of protection, as corporations may still attempt to divide or corrupt communities. Consequently, the M4 emphasizes the importance of establishing 'vigilance groups' to oversee compliance with the decisions.

APA

Rojas, I. (2018). DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf

Chicago

Rojas, Isaac. DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rojas |first1=Isaac |title=DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=February 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rojas2018declaring, author = {Rojas, Isaac}, title = {{DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }