The Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) is a group that brings more than four hundred indigenous people together.  It was founded in Lima Peru in 1982 in order for native people to be able to defend their rights, fight for the survival of their culture, and to exchange experiences in to find solutions to their various problems.

 

 Since 1992 COICA has made its headquarters in Quito, Ecuador.  They have a Congress that meets every four years in order to make up policies and find new authorities.  It is this group that comes up with official goals such as the desire to promote and develop the interaction between indigenous peoples and COICA members.  They also want to be able to defend territorial restoration, indigenous peoples self-determination and the human rights of its members.  An additional goal is to strengthen the unity for the region's indigenous peoples; and finally, to promote the cultural comeback and recuperation of the Amazon indigenous peoples.

 Today the group has accomplished such feats as allowing indigenous peoples to be educated in their native languages.  They have also founded an Amazon Indigenous University.  Both of these things are part of the push for recuperation and revalorization of traditional cultures.