Mulheres em Ação no Pantanal (MUPAN)

Mulheres em Ação no Pantanal translates to ‘Women in Action in the Pantanal’. The Pantanal is a natural environment that contains the greatest tropical wetland area and the largest flooded grasslands in the entire world. Although it stretches into parts of Bolivia, and Paraguay, it is predominantly found within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. MUPAN is the first non-governmental organisation in the Pantanal to focus on incorporating gender equality into water management.

MUPAN aims to empower women and local communities to defend their territories and protect the Pantanal ecosystem. It prides itself on having created spaces for a variety of stakeholders to learn, debate, and share, combining multiple perspectives to generate innovative thinking for solutions to threats to the environment and the rights of local people, particularly women.

The Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, covering over 70,000 square miles. Image: Christoph Diewald/Flickr/Creative Commons

One of MUPAN’s priorities is to support and strengthen the network of territories of life (also known as ICCAs:  Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas) in Brazil. The recognition of ICCAs can be a powerful instrument for valuing the roles of communities in conservation and highlighting the importance of local people and their territories nationally and internationally.

MUPAN has established a Brazilian ICCA network which informs communities and institutions with an interest in Brazilian ICCAs and helps support Indigenous and traditional communities looking at having their territories registered as ICCAs (registration is obtained through a series of steps managed by the ICCA Consortium).