For 25 years, Amazon Conservation has worked hand in hand with Indigenous communities, scientists, and local partners to protect the Amazon’s most important forests and rivers. From the remote biological stations in the heart of the rainforest to remote, biodiversity-rich protected areas, our teams are on the ground monitoring wildlife, restoring habitats, and supporting sustainable livelihoods that keep the Amazon standing. 

Yet this irreplaceable forest faces mounting threats from deforestation and climate change, making our work more urgent than ever.

In just one week, on September 5, we come together for our inaugural Rise for the Amazon Day, a global call to action to protect the forests that give the world so much–in the form of air, food, water, medicine, and climate stability–and support the local communities who depend on them. This day is about more than awareness; it is about joining the movement to defend the Amazon’s wildlife, conserve rivers and waterways, and empower local and Indigenous leaders working tirelessly to safeguard their ancestral lands. 

Together, we can protect the Amazon Rainforest–for us all.

A Special Invitation for Our Donors

To show our gratitude for your ongoing support, all donors will receive an invitation to a donor-only webinar on September 16. This virtual event will provide exclusive previews of major findings and the latest news on our conservation work directly from experts in the field, as well as the opportunity to interact and ask any questions to these scientists. This is our way of bringing you closer to the impact you help make possible.

Donate today before the webinar fills up!

Make an Impact

Rise for the Amazon Day is a perfect opportunity to explore smart giving strategies that maximize your impact. Even in an uncertain economy, there are multiple ways to contribute to support nature without impacting your current budget and taking advantage of tax benefits. Here are some ways to give thoughtfully while supporting the Amazon:

• Monthly or Recurring Gifts: Split your high-impact annual donation into manageable monthly contributions to maximize your impact, while also giving our teams predictable resources to protect the forest year-round.
• Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs): A DAF allows you to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax benefit, and recommend grants to Amazon Conservation over time. Learn more and start your DAF gift here.
• Gifts from Your Estate: Plan a future gift through your will or estate that supports the Amazon for generations to come. This is a meaningful way to leave a lasting legacy.
• Matching Gifts and Corporate Giving: Many employers match charitable contributions made by their employees. Check if your company offers a matching program to double your impact.
• Gifts of Appreciated Assets: Contributing stocks, mutual funds, or other assets can provide significant tax advantages while supporting critical conservation work. Learn more about these options here.

These strategies allow you to give smarter, make a bigger impact, and ensure your support is tailored to your goals and values. Every gift helps protect wildlife, support Amazonian families, and keep forests standing and thriving.

As we look ahead over the next week towards this first Rise for the Amazon Day, we invite you to reflect on the difference we can make when we work together. Stay tuned for more details about the donor-exclusive webinar and other ways to engage. Your support is what makes this movement possible.

Together, we can protect the Amazon Rainforest–for us all.

The Amazon is one of the most extraordinary places on Earth. Its forests breathe life into the world, its rivers flow like veins carrying water and energy, and its people and wildlife embody a resilience that inspires us all.

But the Amazon is at a crossroads. Rising pressures from deforestation, fires, and climate change are threatening to push this vital ecosystem toward an irreversible tipping point. At the same time, communities across the region are leading powerful efforts to protect their home. What they need is for all of us to rise with them.

That’s why on September 5, we’re celebrating Rise for the Amazon Day as a day for people everywhere to come together in solidarity with the Amazon.

Rise for the Amazon Day is about more than giving. It’s about standing shoulder to shoulder with Indigenous peoples protecting their lands, with scientists tracking the forest’s health, with farmers choosing sustainable paths, and with wildlife whose future depends on the choices we make today.

It’s a reminder that the Amazon belongs to all of us, and protecting it is one of the most powerful gifts we can offer future generations.

How You Can Be Part of Rise for the Amazon Day

There are so many simple ways to join in and make an impact:

• Make a gift – Every contribution supports Amazon conservation on the ground where it matters most. Also learn about our options for giving non-cash assets here.
• Give monthly – Become a sustaining donor and help protect the forest all year long.
• Start a fundraiser – Rally your friends and family with your own fundraiser to multiply your impact.
• Spread the word – Share our campaign and inspire others to rise with you.
• Honor someone special – Dedicate your gift to a loved one and let them know they’re part of something bigger.

You are part of a movement that reaches far beyond one person, one community, or even one country.

Why This Day Matters

The Amazon is a source of life for the entire planet. Its forests stabilize the global climate, safeguard fresh water, and sustain millions of people and countless species. By coming together on Rise for the Amazon Day, we can take meaningful action to protect this irreplaceable place.

Originally started in Brazil to commemorate the creation of the State of Amazonas, this day now celebrates the global importance and beauty of the Amazon Rainforest and calls for urgent action to protect this vast, biodiverse biome. Today, Rise for the Amazon Day invites people everywhere to stand together for the Amazon’s future.

Together, We Can Protect the Forest…and Ourselves

The Amazon’s story is still being written. With your help, it can be a story of resilience, of communities empowered, of forests standing tall, and of a planet that breathes easier.

This Rise for the Amazon Day, we invite you to stand with us. Together, we can protect the Amazon Rainforest–for us all.

If you are a current or retired U.S. government employee, did you know that the Combined Federal Campaign’s (CFC) 2024 GIVE HAPPY Campaign is already in full swing? Now through January 15, government employees and retirees can help make a difference for a thriving Amazon by GIVING HAPPY to Amazon Conservation.

This year’s campaign theme – GIVE HAPPY – connects giving with happiness, showing that when Federal employees give together, they spread happiness and they get happier too. Through the CFC, members of the Federal community go beyond their call to public service by contributing to the thousands of charities that work to improve the quality of life for all.

Search for Amazon Conservation on the CFC giving page or by using our CFC #49371 to GIVE HAPPY and GIVE HOPE for a thriving future for the Amazon!

OR

Text “DONATE” to 978-487-5678 and include our CFC #49371!

For more than 60 years, members of the Federal community have contributed to charities through the CFC, giving more than $8.7 billion to help those in need locally, across the nation, and throughout the world. As communities across the globe are experiencing the impacts of a changing climate, the CFC’s GIVE HAPPY Campaign is the ideal opportunity to join forces and support climate-smart and nature-based solutions to protect critical yet vulnerable places like the Amazon Rainforest.

Why Amazon Conservation? The Amazon contains the single largest tropical rainforest on the planet, spanning more than 1.6 billion acres across 9 South American countries. A significant source of the world’s trees, oxygen, water, food, wildlife, and medicine, the Amazon is the most important terrestrial biome on the planet. Protecting the Amazon ensures a healthy future for all of humanity.

What greater gift could you give than preserving our planet for future generations? 

It’s quick, easy, and convenient to make your pledge for the Amazon today! To donate to protect the greatest wild forest on Earth, search for Amazon Conservation (CFC #49371) at www.givecfc.org. Through this convenient pledge portal, you can set your pledge up as a payroll deduction, credit/debit card, or an e-check/bank transfer. If you have donated to us through the CFC in previous years, you can easily renew your pledge via the pledge portal.

To learn more about Amazon Conservation and share our work with your colleagues, consider inviting us to your CFC event! We have staff available to attend virtual events anywhere as well as in-person events in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area. We would love to answer your questions about conservation in the Amazon and illustrate how far your dollars go towards protecting wild places, empowering people, and putting science and technology to work.

New to the CFC? Give it a try — just $5 per paycheck to your favorite charity makes a big difference.

Did you GIVE HAPPY already? Be sure to download your “I GAVE” badge and display it proudly.

If you are a government employee or retiree, be sure to make your pledge and GIVE HAPPY by January 15 to Amazon Conservation (CFC #49371) at www.givecfc.org.

As part of a significant step in advancing the sustainable management of regional conservation areas in Peru, our sister organization in Peru Conservación Amazónica–ACCA donated 290,000 Peruvian Soles (about $77,100) to the Cuzco Regional Government in support of a project aiming to create a regional system of protected areas in the country’s Andes-Amazon region. This initiative arises from an agreement between the Cuzco Regional Government and Conservación Amazónica–ACCA to sustainably manage the Chuyapi Urusayhua Regional Conservation Area (RCA), one of the region’s five RCAs.

Thanks to the financial support of the Andes Amazon Fund, this is Conservación Amazónica–ACCA’s third donation to the Cuzco Regional Government totaling more than 725,500 Soles (about $193,100) since 2022. These funds are dedicated to the sustainable management of several Regional Conservation Areas including Ausangate, Tres Cañones, and Chuyapi Urusayhua. With this latest contribution, Conservación Amazónica–ACCA and the Cuzco Regional Government continue to consolidate their commitment to the conservation and environmental management of the region’s rich biodiversity.

The Chuyapi Urusayhua RCA was established in 2021 to conserve water resources; to preserve vulnerable ecosystems, including highland grasslands called punas and the Yungas forests; and to protect emblematic species such as the Andean bear (or spectacled bear), cock-of-the-rock, puma, and jaguarundi. The recent funds from Conservación Amazónica–ACCA supports continued control and surveillance activities, sustainable economic activities, and a range of conservation and protection mechanisms that help further the overarching objectives of the RCAs.

The latest donation reinforces the commitment of both entities to the protection of biodiversity, natural resources, and the well-being of local communities. The ongoing partnership demonstrates that joint efforts can more effectively achieve shared objectives, and it shows the Cuzco Regional Government’s political will to continue improving the conservation of its ecosystems and the management of the RCAs. It also highlights the Cuzco Regional Government’s commitment to building a regional system of protected areas, as well as the creation of new regional conservation areas such as the proposed Araza Forests RCA.

As Earth Month comes to a close in these final days of April, we want to share some of the inspiring ways that supporters like you have helped empower future generations of conservationists. Whether we’re talking with local students who have grown up surrounded by rainforest or classrooms of students continents away, we have seen how enthusiastic young people in the Amazon and around the globe are about protecting the planet and its forests. 

At Amazon Conservation, Investing in Our Future means encouraging this appreciation for the Amazon and supporting future conservationists by:

1. Supporting local programs that help ensure today’s youth have the space and resources to learn about and feel inspired to protect their local forests. Programs like the Children’s Forest in the Bolivian community of Motacusal help safeguard spaces where communities can pass on local forest knowledge to their children and ensure that future generations have the opportunity to continue living healthy lives in the Amazon.

   Your contribution of just $25 can help safeguard 15 acres of forest to protect the home and resources of local Amazonian communities like Motacusal for future generations.

2. Creating opportunities for local youth to learn about the importance of their local forests and species and how to keep the Amazon standing. We believe environmental education is fundamental in inspiring young people to become conservationists, like the recently inaugurated Andean Bear Interpretation Center at our Wayqecha Conservation Hub in the cloud forests near Cuzco, Peru, located in an area encompassing a uniquely biodiverse landscape that bridges the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Rainforest. The Interpretation Center is an important space for connecting local youth with the nature and science of their region and empowering them to support local conservation efforts and become stewards of their forest.
   

   Your contribution of just $50 sponsors one local student to take part in an environmental education program that utilize resources like the Andean Bear Interpretation Center at Wayqecha to teach them about the local ecosystem, wildlife species, and the important role of protecting local habitat and resources to conserve the larger Amazon.

3. Providing new tools and resources for local students in the Amazon to observe and interact with their forests and native wildlife in new ways. These tools, paired with environmental education programs in local schools, help empower and inspire future generations of conservationists.

   Last December, we delivered 7 new high-quality binoculars to a school in the Municipality of Puerto Rico in the northern Bolivian Amazon and hosted a workshop with the school of 26 students between 4 and 16 years old to demonstrate how to use the binoculars to observe and record wildlife in the forests around their community. For many of these students, the experience provided new insight into the importance of preserving the forests in and around their community.

   Your contribution of just $100 can provide one set of new high-quality binoculars to local youth like those in Puerto Rico to empower them to learn about their forests and local wildlife in new ways.

4. Ensuring field experience and opportunities for local scientists to contribute to ground-breaking research and local conservation efforts at our Conservation Hubs. In 2022, supporters like you funded research scholarships to 4 young Peruvian scientists through the Catto Shaw 2022 internship program to spend seven months with Team Ukuku working to restore Andean bear habitat and food sources at our Wayqecha Conservation Hub. These scholarship programs are central to our work because they provide local scientists with competitive field experience, space to explore their home country’s ecosystems and biodiversity, and opportunities to better understand the importance of their local forests for the larger Amazon region.

   

   Click to learn more about Yessenia’s work with Team Ukuku.

   Your contribution of $1000 can help provide a scholarship for one local student to conduct field work and gain valuable biology experience at one of our research stations, thus inspiring future generations of local scientists to help conserve the Amazon.

5. Encouraging young supporters globally to get involved and help save the Amazon. Earlier this year, we partnered with Year 4 students at Avonwood Primary School in the United Kingdom to put together a fundraiser to raise £100 to raise awareness about the Amazon and our Los Amigos Conservation Hub in Peru. The 8-year-old students learned about the important species that depend on the rainforest and created wildlife portraits to fill a virtual gallery that they centered in their fundraiser to spread awareness and raise more than £170 for the Amazon, surpassing their goal by 70%!

   Thanks to these young students eager to make a difference and their family and friends for supporting them, we know the future of the Amazon and the planet depends on supporting our youngest conservationists today.

Continue reading “Earth Month Wrap Up: Invest in Our Future to Empower the Next Generation of Conservationists” →

Experts from Conservación Amazónica – ACCA in Peru hosted a training workshop in the use of the RAMI (Radar Mining Monitoring) tool at an event with the goal of building capacity and transferring technology to specialists in environmental monitoring at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainability (SEMAS) in the Brazilian state of Pará.

Peruvian and Brazilian monitoring teams during the workshop.

The main objective of the training workshop held this past April 12-14 was to replicate Peru’s gold mining monitoring system in Brazil’s Tapajós River basin, located in Pará, using detection with radar images. In addition, it focused on improving SEMAS staff’s capacity to use free and open-source resources to process large amounts of data using the Google Earth Engine platform.

Conservación Amazónica – ACCA’s Director of GIS and Conservation Technology Sidney Novoa highlighted the similarities between Brazil’s and Peru’s territories, such as the presence of Indigenous territories, conservation and environmental protection areas, and national parks, which at times overlap with miners’ rights and mining licenses, generating land and resource conflicts. Because of these similarities, valuable lessons learned in Peru related to the implementation of monitoring technology may also be applicable in the Tapajós region. In addition, Sidney added that the technology transfer used to fight illegal mining in Peru was made possible thanks to the support of the Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (IMAFLORA), which works closely with authorities from Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainability (SEMAS) who have also hired a local specialist to adapt the methodology to the region’s needs.

The RAMI tool, developed through a collaboration between Peruvian experts from Conservación Amazónica – ACCA and SERVIR-Amazonia, is a new geospatial technology tool that has been successfully implemented in the Madre de Dios region of Peru to help detect illegal gold mining activities. During the recent training workshop, our monitoring specialists shared their knowledge about RAMI’s programming language, data interpretation, and data qualification with the Brazilian environmental monitoring specialists.

Sidney Novoa shares Madre de Dios’s experience with implementing RAMI.

SEMAS Secretary Mauro O’de Almeida explained that the Tapajós region was chosen for the RAMI operation because of the high levels of illegal gold mining activity. He hopes that this tool will help address the problem of illegal mining, which is a major challenge for environmental management in Pará and negatively impacts the region’s economy and natural resources.

RAMI will be a critical tool in reinforcing SEMAS’s environmental control and monitoring strategy by helping combat illegal mining, supervising licensed companies, and protecting the environment and communities that depend on these natural resources. In addition, this technology will be shared with other federal agencies in Pará to strengthen the fight against illegal mining and help ensure the sustainability of the Amazon.

RAMI is implemented by Conservación Amazónica – ACCA thanks to support of the SERVIR-Amazonia, a program developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Agency for Development International (USAID).

This April, the Municipality of Cobija in the Department of Pando along with our sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA, celebrated the first anniversary of the city’s first and only protected area. The Arroyo Bahía Conservation Area (known by the acronym ANGICAB in Spanish) protects 8,952 acres (3,623 hectares) of forests and critical water sources. The area has also been identified by the Bolivian government as a priority for biodiversity conservation.

ANGICAB was established in April 2022 thanks to support from the Andes Amazon Fund with the goal of protecting the Arroyo Bahía stream and watershed, which provide freshwater to more than 80,000 people including residents of Cobija, surrounding communities in the Department of Pando, and communities neighboring Pando in Peru to the west and in Brazil to the north and east. The conservation area also protects a range of flora and fauna, including more than 351 plant, 35 amphibian, 13 reptile, 185 bird, 32 mammal, and 30 fish species.

Since the 1980s, the Arroyo Bahía watershed has steadily lost forest cover due to a growing demand for land to raise livestock, which has progressively led to greater erosion, soil compaction, and sedimentation that clogs streams. This in turn has impacted forest regeneration, water and soil pollution, and a drop in water quality and potability for local residents. Local forest harvesters in the region have also noted a decrease in the production of Brazil nut trees in recent years in relation to these changes in the local forests and watershed.

Thanks to the establishment of ANGICAB, the local government of Cobija and Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA are optimistic that local residents will engage more in taking care of their local conservation area and protect the watershed from contamination and deforestation for their own health, the health of the ecosystem, and the health of the larger Amazon region. Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA continues to work together with the local government and local communities to complement sustainable land and water management through ANGICAB with programs that support sustainable livelihoods for local families and promote strategies that help mitigate floods, fires, pollution, and the effects of climate change.

Photos from the anniversary event in Cobija celebrating the town’s natural beauty and featuring murals by local artist Alvaro Huayllas.

Spring is here and April is Earth Month! We’re celebrating the season of blooming and fresh starts by reflecting on ways we each can Invest in Our Future to Invest in Our Planet. Protecting the Amazon for future generations of animals and people who call it home is a huge task we can only achieve by working together and doing our part. Join us in Investing in Our Future to ensure a thriving Amazon for years to come. 

Here are 4 quick and easy ways you can Invest in Our Future and the Amazon this April:

1. Create your legacy for the Amazon by making your will today: Our trusted partner FreeWill is a great place to begin your estate planning process because it’s a free online solution that guides you through writing your will and making your legacy gift, all in about 20 minutes!

When you include Amazon Conservation in your estate plan, you’re investing in the future of our planet by ensuring our organization continues our fight well into the future. A legacy gift is an act of solidarity with our advocacy and education programs, which empower the youngest generations of future forest friends.

Make your will today and help us defend the Amazon for the next generation!

2. Become a Wild Keeper and help make our conservation programs more sustainable: When you donate to Amazon Conservation every month, you are providing the sustainable support we need to ensure the longevity of our programs on the ground across the rainforest. Starting your monthly donation of any amount in honor of Earth Month facilitates your giving plans and deepens your impact because recurring gifts help us plan for ongoing support of our most essential conservation efforts with long-term impacts.

Planting your seed as a Wild Keeper today means our programs that help prepare and empower youth will be able to flourish as youth conservationists, like these children in the community of Motacusal in the Bolivian Amazon and the Andean Bear Interpretation Center in the cloud forests of Peru, which serves as an important learning space for environmental education for local students and young scientists. 

Learn more about what it means to join our community of Wild Keepers here.

3. Learn the different ways to make your impact bloom: Do you know the variety of ways you can make your contribution to Amazon Conservation count? Check out our Ways to Give page and explore if your contribution might qualify for a match from your employer, explore other donation means that could mean bigger tax benefits, or consider sharing your love for the Amazon by selecting “I Want To Fundraise for This” on our Donation Page to start a Peer to Peer Fundraiser to raise funds to Invest in Our Future.

4. Get inspired! As you take in the start of spring and think about the future of the planet you want, share what inspires you. Work with your family, friends, and community to find a way that makes sense to plant your seeds. Plant a garden, go for a walk or bike ride, or share drawings or paintings of your favorite Amazon flora and fauna. Share your inspiration with us by tagging us @amazonconservation and using #InvestInTheAmazon!

The Japu indigenous community is one of 5 indigenous communities that make up the Q’ero Nation, a nationality considered to be the last Inca stronghold as well as the place where forest conservation and wetland restoration emerge as a strategy to combat the impacts of the changing climate in the Peruvian Andes.

The technical support that our Peruvian sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA has provided to this farming community since 2019 has allowed them to now have 37 acres of restored wetlands, which they are able to use as grazing areas for wild alpacas and vicuñas.

By learning about the restoration of their bofedales – a unique type of mountain wetlands that store water from melting glaciers or rivers – the residents of Japu have seen growing opportunities to share and pass along the knowledge and benefits of what they have learned by word of mouth in order to continue restoring their bofedales and pastures. 

“Learning to restore our bofedales has been vital for us because it allows us to preserve the water that feeds other communities, while also providing our alpacas with food and nutrients that improve the quality of their wool,” said Felicitas Huillca, a community member of Japu.

Bofedales are key for the community’s resilience against climate change, as they are not only regarded as reservoirs of water but also for carbon, which is stored in the form of peat 4,000 meters above sea level in the high elevations of the Andes. In fact, bofedales can store as much as 120-285 tons of carbon per acre, compared to an average of 60 tons of carbon per acre stored in the Amazon rainforest. However, these incredibly important areas are also at risk of deterioration due to overgrazing of locally raised animals, high animal density, and poor management. 

Implementing a closure technique by using a metal grid fence called cattle panels, farmers can close off specific pastures for a determined amount of time to allow wetland plant and tree species to recover, reproduce, and give fruit and seeds once again. This process can take one to two years to recover one wetland area.

Currently, 40 families of the Japu community are restoring these montane bofedales and humid puna grasslands ecosystems across an area of approximately 24 acres, making it a successful model that other local communities are interested in replicating.

Similarly, the communities of Phinaya and Sibina Sallma – which are part of the Ausangate Regional Conservation Area in the Peruvian highlands that we helped establish a few years ago – have been working to restore bofedales since 2022. These restoration areas include 24 acres where livestock, such as alpaca and vicuña, are prohibited from entering in order to prevent overgrazing, as well as another 24 acres without livestock restrictions but with water flow management. By allowing for constant water flow and thus uniform irrigation across the bofedales, the communities help prevent waterlogging, flooding, and a lack of oxygenation in these vulnerable ecosystems. Based on their current success with these initial 48 acres, for 2023 the Phinaya and Sibina Sallma communities are considering expanding their restoration activities to include another 48 acres.

It is important to note that the conservation and protection of these ecosystems leads to an important increase in the water resources of two basins: 1) the Araza Basin, which irrigates the lands of the Inambari Valley, and 2) the Vilcanota Basin, which irrigates the lowlands areas of Canchis, Quispicanchi, Cusco, Calca and Urubamba. Both of these river basins encompass unique ecological biomes in a region where the Andes transitions into Amazon, lending itself to vast altitudinal gradients, vulnerable biodiversity and species, and extensive ecological corridors essential for the survival of species working to adapt to the warming climate. In addition, these water systems feed the Machupicchu hydroelectric plant in Machu Picchu, which provides electricity to the regions of Cusco, Apurímac and Puno. As such, this is a vital area for protection and conservation.

As these models show, farming communities in the Andean highlands of the department of Cusco are taking charge of the conservation and protection of one of their primary resources: water.

These activities have been implemented thanks to the technical support of Amazon Conservation’s sister organization in Peru, Conservación Amazónica – ACCA, as well as other partner organizations such as Acción Andina, and thanks to the financial support of ECOAN, Global Forest Generation, Andes Amazon Fund and BIOLABS Foundation, with the goal of conserving degraded areas in Peru.

Since 2022, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA, our sister organization in Bolivia, has been an integral part of the Regional Implementation Team (RIT) for the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which works to empower civil society to protect the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Through this partnership with the CEPF, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA has been working on the ground with the indigenous communities of T’simane, Mosetene, and Tacana to empower them to conserve their territory in Bolivia’s Pilón-Lajas Biosphere Reserve and Communal Lands protected area.

Photo: © Ebelio Romay/CRTM.

The T’simane, Mosetene and Tacana indigenous peoples occupy the lowlands at the foothills of the Andes mountains, alongside the Bolivian Amazonian plains, an area with hilly terrain and rich wetlands. This territory is part of the Madidi – Pilón Lajas – Cotapata Ecological Corridor, which covers nearly 988,500 acres of forest, unique in that it is legally recognized as indigenous territories as well as an UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve.

Throughout history, the vast availability of natural resources in the region has led to increasing threats to the conservation of the forest and the protection of the Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve and Indigenous Territory. In recent years, these threats only continue to grow and intensify, including: mega hydroelectric dams, hydrocarbon prospecting, continued road encroachment into the forest, illegal settlements, and illegal gold mining, all of which put local communities and their livelihoods at risk. 

In addition to these external threats, indigenous communities in the region face high poverty rates as a result of limited access to education and resources. To address these threats, the T’simane, Mosetene and Tacana have worked together to organize themselves through the T’simane Mosetene Regional Council (CRTM based on its name in Spanish). With the support of partners CEPF and the Wildlife Conservation Society, these communities worked together to develop a Life Plan, or Management Plan, for the Biosphere Reserve, which lays out a clear diagnosis of the state of the territory and how to deal with the biggest threats. Through these life plans, these indigenous groups will fight for autonomy over their territory and the sustainable management of their natural resources in order to conserve the region’s biodiversity and improve their livelihoods.

Also through the Life Plan, the CRTM regional council has also incorporated activities to help strengthen and empower the communities’ populations in the areas of leadership, governance, communication, and financial sustainability. The Life Plan also includes activities that support local economic development, such as the sustainable harvest of forest products as well as strengthening female business leaders in the communities who are responsible for their family’s or communities’ food security. The regional council has also laid the groundwork to prepare young leaders, including providing training in indigenous rights, partnering with other actors for support, and other ways to prepare themselves to defend and manage their territory.

This approach to forest conservation has repercussions at both the macro- and micro levels: it both directly and indirectly benefits indigenous communities living in the Tropical Andes Hotspot while also encouraging the protection of one of the world’s largest carbon reserves, one of the largest freshwater reserves, and one of the most diverse regions for fauna and flora on the planet.

Through Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA’s work as a partner of CEPF, we are proud to be part of a collective effort to provide sustainable support to execute the CRTM’s Life Plan to not only improve the livelihoods of the T’simane, Mosetene and Tacana indigenous peoples and the sustainable management of forest resources, but to also empower these communities to protect their territories, be the local guardians of this biodiversity as they have for millennia, and keep the forest standing for the benefit of all across the globe.

[Source: https://andestropicales.net/los-pueblos-indigenas-tsimane-mosetene-y-tacana-de-pilon-lajas-en-el-desafio-para-conservar-su-territorio-y-biodiversidad/?fbclid=IwAR0TtABB-R855WGQebMbEjT21Hz1jnavHg5ttr8mFxNp3HrP72QHRTVaaYA]