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Indigenous People

Empowering those on the front lines

Indigenous communities are at the forefront of forest protection and helping lead the charge to keep wild places safe. We empower these local conservation leaders to protect their ancestral forests through establishing conservation areas, managing natural resources in sustainable ways.

How we help indigenous communities

Establishing Conservation Areas

We support indigenous communities in the western Amazon in Peru and Bolivia to establish conservation areas in their ancestral territories to ensure these areas will be kept standing for generations to come.

We do so by providing:

  • Funding
  • Legal support
  • Technical expertise
  • Networks that enable the communities and governments to legally establish conservation areas.

Promoting Sustainable Natural Resource Management

In addition to helping indigenous communities create their own conservation areas, we provide trainings, workshops, technical support and feedback on their natural resource and land uses to ensure their practices are sustainable.

With the support of our local experts, communities are able to create “Life Plans” to manage their lands for present and future use.

Protecting Uncontacted Indigenous Tribes

There are indigenous tribes who have chosen to live in voluntary isolation, that is, to not have contact with the modern world. These tribes are threatened by growing agricultural, logging, and mining expansions that can result in dangerous conflicts.

We are working with government entities to establish protected territories for these tribes to continue to live in traditional ways.

Our own Los Amigos Conservation Concession in Peru acts as a buffer for an area known to be populated by uncontacted tribes, thus shielding them from potentially life-threatening situations.

Helping Implement Forest-Friendly Livelihoods

Many times, deforestation happens out of a local need for people to make an income and feed their families.

We help communities establish conservation-centered alternatives to destructive activities like gold mining and illegal logging. These alternative, sustainable livelihoods – such as ecotourism, agroforestry, and fish farms – are not only forest-friendly but also yield higher incomes for families, improving their well-being while keeping their forests standing.

Impact Highlights

Created the first conservation

concession in the world in Queros, Peru managed by an indigenous community

2 million acres

of wild forests protected and managed by indigenous communities

Over 1,000

indigenous community members trained in conservation best practices

The Latest from the Amazon

Celebrating International Women’s Day by Empowering Women Bird Guides in Peru

Among birders, a Big Day is a day in which birders or teams of birders strive to identify and record as many bird species in a defined area as they can in a single day.  This year, Amazon Conservation is proud to sponsor the first-ever Women’s Big Day in Peru at our Manu Conservation Hub […]

Peru Recognizes Los Amigos Conservation Area at 2022 COP15

At 2022’s COP15 (the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) in Montreal, Peru announced the recognition of Los Amigos Conservation Concession as its first of two Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM), as part of Peru’s efforts to meet the goal set by the Biological Diversity Agreement […]

Creating Protected Natural Areas for Sustainable Management

On December 20, 2022, with technical support from our sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA, the Mayor’s office of Porvenir in the Amazonian department of Pando, established the Natural Area of Integrated Management of the Porvenir Forest.  This new protected area will ensure the health and sustainable management of these productive forests with […]

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Help us protect indigenous communities critical to the health and stability of the Amazon.

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    202-234-2356 / info@amazonconservation.org

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