In the 1980s, burning rain forests in Brazil drew worldwide attention to the plight of the Amazon Basin: Without a plan for development and conservation, would this vast forested “lungs of the world” disappear? And would it take with it all benefits to global air and water, human and animal diversity, scientific and medical advances?
Many international organizations rushed to develop plans for conservation and development of the lower Amazon. In the late 1990s, however, a small group of conservationists looked higher, to the source of the Amazon.
1997 Major need identified
Tropical scientists Adrian Forsyth and Enrique Ortiz began working with Brazil nut harvesters on how they could protect the forest they call home while still utilizing them sustainably for their livelihoods
1999 Amazon Conservation is founded
After seeing the great need in the Amazon basin, Adrian Forsyth and Enrique Ortiz co-founded Amazon Conservation to fight to protect the headwaters of the greatest wild forest on Earth
1999 Flagship Brazil Nuts conservation program begins
Flagship Brazil Nuts conservation program begins
2000 Los Amigos Research Station is established
Strategically located, we inaugurate our first biological station on the conviction that the greatest forest on the planet deserves the best research centers in the world
2000 Los Amigos Conservation Concession is granted
We create the world's first conservation concession using a public-public partnership model, developing a new blueprint for forest conservation that is still used to this day
2002 First atlas of the Amazon is created
With our support, the first watershed-based atlas of the Amazon is created by staff scientists in partnership with the Smithsonian
2004 Expanding to work on the ground in Bolivia
To study and conserve the unique Pampas del Heath ecosystem, we establish an on-the-ground permanent presence in the Bolivian Amazon
2005 Wayqecha Cloud Forest Research Station is established
Our second research station, and Peru's first permanent field station focused on cloud forests, is built
2008 Flagship indigenous conservation area is created
We support the Wachiperi indigenous community of Haramba Queros to develop the first conservation concession managed by an indigenous community, putting the power in the hands of those at the forefront of protecting forests.
2010 Villa Carmen Research Station is established
Taking advantage of the impressive elevational gradient of 1,700-4,400 feet above sea level at the foothills of the Andes Mountains, we build the tropic's most premier research station
2012 Finding the 7,000 Frog
By funding a research team at our Wayqecha station, we discovered the Wayqecha Centrolene Sabini, the 7,000th amphibian species in the world
2013 New forest-friendly livelihood options developed
A new project laid the groundwork for how local communities could earn a living without risking their forests, including ecotourism, agroforestry, and fish farms
2014 250,000 trees planted
Our community reforestation efforts throughout the years cross the threshold of a quarter of a million trees planted to reforest degraded or damaged land
2015 Real-time deforestation monitoring becomes a reality through the launch of MAAP
An innovative deforestation monitoring and analysis system is created to use satellite imagery and radar technology to find, track, and expose deforestation happening in real-time.
2016 Southwest Amazon Drone Center piloted
Amazon's first drone training and monitoring center is established through a pilot program at our Los Amigos station, to provide local people with training and technology tools to detect deforestation in their forests
2017 Los Amigos Bird Observatory connects
A new research lab into, including fellowships
2019 Supported Bolivia in creating its biggest conservation area ever
Provided technical support for the Ixiamas municipal government to create the Bajo Madidi conservation area, which protects an area 3 times the size of the Grand Canyon (3.8M acres)
In 1999, Amazon Conservation was founded to protect the vast forests of Peru and Bolivia, home to the headwaters of the Amazon River.
Amazon Conservation’s founding program provided support for Brazil nut harvesters in Peru as an incentive for protecting the forest, the first of many locally driven, pragmatic conservation solutions that are the hallmark of the organization.
Amazon Conservation secured the world’s first conservation concession in 2001.
Now a practice in use globally, conservation concessions entrust long-term protection of publicly-owned land to nonprofit institutions in exchange for investments in conservation and sustainable development. Amazon Conservation’s private-public partnership comprises 360,000 acres buffering world-famous Manu National Park—a small part but critical part of more than 1.5 million acres now protected through Amazon Conservation’s work.
Developing the most active research centers in the Amazon.
Signaling our dedication to scientific discovery and application, we established a series of research stations that together comprise the most active research centers in the Amazon. Running along the altitudinal transect of the region, the particular geography of the research stations is designed to create a corridor providing an escape route for the tremendous flora and fauna of western Amazonia and the eastern Andes, now threatened by rapid climate change.
The organization has, in fact, been building the “ark” that will carry the greatest possible number of species through the period of climate change now upon us.