Identity that generates trust and opportunities
Indigenous Seal is a project by Indigeniería aimed at developing a certification system that allows recognizing and making verifiable the attributes of identity, origin, production, and sustainability of Indigenous products. It seeks to connect territorial knowledge, community participation, and verification tools with new market opportunities.
The project is based on the proposal published in Indigenous Marketplace and opens an agenda of co-creation, research, and validation together with communities, companies, universities, and foundations. Its development requires defining what is certified, who verifies, and how Indigenous peoples participate in decisions.
Ten principles to build the Seal
- Cultural authenticity: reflect the culture and traditions of the Indigenous people of origin.
- Local raw material: promote materials obtained sustainably in the territory.
- Traditional techniques: recognize the methods and productive knowledge of the communities.
- Community participation: involve communities and ensure their economic and social benefit.
- Environmental sustainability: reduce impacts and contribute to conserving biodiversity.
- Transparency and traceability: make the product’s journey from origin to consumer verifiable.
- Quality and safety: establish criteria that support the product’s integrity and reliability.
- Innovation with identity: incorporate new solutions respecting and enriching cultural identity.
- Gender equity: promote equality in production and marketing.
- Community benefit: favor a fair distribution of benefits for producing communities.
These principles constitute the basis of work. Their application, scope, and evaluation mechanisms must be developed and validated with the participating actors, taking into account the particularities of each territory and productive category.
A certification pathway to develop and validate
The Indigenous Marketplace proposal includes ten stages:
- Initial application and description of products and processes.
- Preliminary evaluation of requirements.
- Field audit in facilities and communities.
- Documentary review of origin, production, and sustainability.
- Evaluation report and opportunities for improvement.
- Improvement plan, when applicable.
- Provisional certification once requirements are met.
- Monitoring and follow-up.
- Certification renewal, with a proposed annual frequency.
- Communication and promotion of certified products.
This pathway is part of the project design. Governance, protocols, auditing capacities, and conditions for the use of the Seal are subjects of development and validation.
A collaboration agenda with universities and foundations
We invite institutions interested in applied research, Indigenous economic development, sustainability, and social innovation to build a work agenda with Indigeniería. We seek to articulate academic capacities, territorial knowledge, and business experience together with the South American Indigenous Business Forum and Indigenous Marketplace.
The proposed agenda includes three lines of work:
- Territorial co-creation and governance: interviews and workshops with companies, organizations, and Indigenous authorities to identify verifiable attributes, cultural boundaries, and legitimate decision-making mechanisms.
- Design and understanding of the Seal: develop prototypes and evaluate how messages about indigenous ownership, production, territorial origin, or community authorization are understood, without treating them as equivalents.
- Market validation: conduct choice experiments and pilots to study trust, perceived authenticity, purchase intention, and willingness to pay, incorporating possible unintended effects.
Universities and research centers can provide methodologies, interdisciplinary teams, and evaluation. Foundations can contribute to capacity building, territorial participation, funding studies, and supporting pilots.
Indigenous participation and shared knowledge
The proposed collaboration includes free, prior, and informed consent, data use agreements, attribution and return of results, with indigenous participation in substantive decisions. The research must contribute to generating economic value and strengthening the cultural authority of those who legitimize the Seal.
Impact we seek to build
We seek to strengthen recognition of origin, buyer trust, commercial differentiation, and opportunities for indigenous businesses and communities. Results will be published when studies and pilots with verifiable evidence exist; currently, they are presented as project objectives.
Let's build a work agenda
If your university, research center, or foundation wants to contribute to the development and validation of the Indigenous Seal, let's discuss a collaboration, research, and territorial pilot agenda.