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

Madre de Dios: 22 kids utilizing technology to combat deforestation

400 students at La Pampa College are able to monitor the schools forests themselves. A group of 22 adolescents at I.E. Virgen de la Candelaria continue to learn about and monitor their 7 hectare forest near their school, thanks to the donation of various technological kits. The kits were delivered on November 18th, and they […]

Setting a new Big Day world record at Los Amigos!

Alex Wiebe, a biologist and Jonathan Franzen Fellow at the Los Amigos Bird Observatory recently broke the world record for an on-foot Big Day, recording 347 species in a single day.

Inspiring the Conservation Heroes of Tomorrow

We expanded our environmental education initiative in the Madre de Dios region of Peru – an area heavily affected by illegal gold mining and deforestation. In 2018, we partnered with 5 educational institutions and have initially engaged 75 youth, between 10 to 16 years of age, in a unique environmental education program. The program teaches […]