We work together with local communities, governments, indigenous groups, and other NGOs to build sustainable and resilient livelihoods that protect standing forests.

How We Empower People

Improve Livelihoods

Help communities and concessionaires develop and improve the sustainable production of forest products, such as Brazil nuts and açaí berries.

Protect Natural Resources

Support forest users to protect their lands and resources from threats like illegal logging and gold mining.

Apply Technology

Provide the technology and training that communities and governments need to better monitor and manage their natural resources.

Strengthen Environmental Governance

Provide tools and build the capacities of governments and communities to work together to reduce threats to the forest, improve the context for conservation, and apply the law.

Train Tomorrow's Conservationists

Create opportunities for the next generation of conservationists by supporting research and providing scholarships for young biologists and deliver environmental education programs to school-aged children.

Protecting local forests and growing economies with açaí berries

Through supporting sustainable livelihoods that keep forests standing, we are empowering local communities like Santa Rosa del Abuná in Bolivia. We’ve partnered with them to improve how they manage the açaí berry – the popular palm fruit dubbed as one of the ten new superfoods in the world. Using our expertise and technology, we developed a GIS program to locate and manage their açaí trees, designed an innovative safety harness to make harvesting berries less dangerous, and taught best practices for transforming the fruit (which only lasts a few days after being harvested) into pulp and storing it to generate higher profits. Working together has improved incomes across the community, making their lives better and their forests healthier.

Inspiring the conservation heroes of tomorrow

We partner with five educational institutions in Madre de Dios, Peru – an area heavily affected by illegal gold mining and deforestation – to get children to connect with and learn about the forests they call home. We deliver a unique environmental education program for youth aged 10-16 years, where they learn how to use camera trap technology to monitor and understand the wildlife with whom they share a forest. After analyzing information from camera trap images and videos, the students present their findings to community groups, including local government officials. By engaging students on environmental protection topics early on, we not only inspire and train these conservationists of tomorrow, but help them become the messengers of today by sharing this knowledge at home, affecting a change in attitude across all generations.

Help us empower more people to conserve their forests!

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The Latest from the Amazon

Heartbeats of the Amazon: A Story of Local Communities and Climate Change

“The people of the Liga Verde community are very concerned at the delay of the seasonal rains, so I want to take advantage of this community meeting to suggest something. I think we should burn a bit of the forest, and convert it for cattle ranching. We cannot be tied down to Brazil nut harvesting.” […]

Partnering With Descendants of the Incas to Combat Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes

Among the soaring mountains of the Andean Andes live the Japu indigenous community of Peru. Part of the Quechua-speaking Q’eros ethnicity, they are considered to be the last direct descendants of the Incas. Their nearly 85,000-acre territory ranges between 500-5,000 meters above sea level, spanning across Andean highlands and Amazonian foothills. Because of the vast […]

San Antonio Community in Bolivia is First in the Region to Receive Equipment That Improves Sustainable Harvesting

The Amazonian forests of northern Bolivia are home to acres upon acres of Brazil nut trees that support a myriad of animal and plant species, as well as local communities, such as San Antonio within the national Manuripi Amazon Wildlife Reserve. Like many in the Bolivian Amazon, the members of the San Antonio community work […]