Earth Month Wrap Up: Invest in Our Future to Empower the Next Generation of Conservationists

April 27, 2023

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.

Find out what Investing in Our Future at other contribution levels can look like this Earth Month. 

 

Looking for other ways to support Amazon Conservation and empower future generations this month? Here are a few ideas to consider: