Native Future President Zach McNish accompanied Professor Lenny Alvarado to Panama this week on a Native Future-sponsored legal consulting trip intended to help the Wounaan assess the national and international avenues by which they might pursue legalization of their land claims.

Professor Alvarado teaches indigenous studies at the University of Northern Arizona and is an expert on the international human rights of indigenous communities. For the last several years, he has represented the Nicaraguan community of Awas Tingi, helping them implrment a landmark judgement that they won in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Under circumstances very similar to those that the Wounaan currently face, the Court ordered the Nicaraguan government to give Awas Tingi communal title to over 90,000 hectares of its traditional land.

With that in mind, Native Future invited Professor Alvarado to Panama to meet with Wounaan leaders, tour the communities and the deforestation sites, and consult with Native Future´s Panamanian attorney and advisors. Professor Alvarado is preparing a report for Native Future that will include recommendations for the Wounaan´s legal team and an action plan for an "international strategy" that could be pursued by the Wounaan should they exhaust all domestic remedies without obtaining title to their land. (Download a copy of his report in Spanish here, or the executive summary in English here.)