We work hand-in-hand with governments and communities to create and strengthen key conservation areas to protect globally-important forests that help mitigate the effects of climate change and provide vital resources for all who call them home.

How We Protect Wild Places

Address Threats

Directly address major threats that endanger biodiversity and people’s well-being, including illegal gold mining and logging, unsustainable road development projects, and climate change impacts, such as fires, flooding and species extinction.

Create Conservation Areas

Support governments and communities to establish new protected areas and indigenous reserves, including areas dedicated to sustainable resource use.

Safeguard Indigenous Territories

Work to protect the territorial rights of uncontacted indigenous groups and the wild lands on which they depend for their survival.

Strengthen Land Management

Innovate the management of conservation areas by providing the science and technology needed to make better decisions, detect deforestation, and monitor the health of forests.

Connect Habitats

Ensure connectivity among key protected areas to keep vast forests intact and enable wildlife to have the space they need to thrive.

Build Climate Resilience

Build the resilience and adaptation capacity needed in still-intact ecosystems to reinforce their conservation in the face of climate change.

Pioneering a new way to protect forests and biodiversity

In 2000, we created the world’s first conservation concession — Los Amigos — which protects more than 360,500 acres of Amazonian forests in Peru. Strategically located on the borders of the Madre de Dios River, a region severely affected by illegal gold mining and logging, Los Amigos provides a crucial buffer for key uncontacted indigenous territories and one of the largest and most biodiverse national parks in the world, Manu. This innovative conservation model establishes a public-private partnership for managing public lands for the purpose of conservation. This unique way of partnering with governments to safeguard forests continues to be replicated across the Amazon and around the world today!

Helping create Bolivia's largest municipal conservation area

Just in 2019, we supported the local government in Bolivia to establish the Municipal Conservation Area of Bajo Madidi, which spans across 3.7 million acres (1.5 M ha) of pristine savannas, wetlands, and rainforests. Bajo Madidi now protects an area three times the size of the Grand Canyon! This area of major biological significance holds some of the most ecologically-intact savannas in the world and is home to vulnerable species like the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), Orinoco goose (Neochen jubata), and the marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus). By providing the technical expertise needed for the establishment of this protected area, we helped the government and local communities gather information on the conservation needs of this landscape, develop a plan to protect this land, support the legal process for establishing a new protected area, and now aiding in the sustainable use and management of Bajo Madidi.

Our Results

Over 8 million acres of wild places protected

25 Conservation areas established and managed with our support

Hundreds of thousands of species protected through our habitat conservation efforts

Want to be part of the solution and help us protect wild places?

Join us today! >

The Latest from the Amazon

Camanti: Turning a Former Mining Hotspot in Peru into a Recognized Conservation Area

In 2019, we reported record high levels of gold mining deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon, with the Camanti area in the Cusco region representing one of the top three most threatened areas after La Pampa and Upper Malinowski. But this past week the protected area was officially established as the Camanti Sostenible Conservation Concession, […]

Reforestation and Governance Protects Critical Water Sources For Local Communities

Apolo is the second largest municipality in the Bolivian department of La Paz and overlaps with nationally important protected areas, including the Madidi National Park (7,320 sq mi, 18,960 sq km) and Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve. Our sister organization on the ground in Bolivia has worked with this community since 2015 to protect critical water […]

Ruthmery Pillco, Who Leads Our Andean Bear Conservation Project, Named Disney Conservation Hero

Ruthmery Pillco, who leads field activities for our Andean Bear Conservation Project, was recently announced as one of fifteen Disney Conservation Heroes, recognized for their efforts to protect the planet. She joins a diverse global community of indigenous conservationists protecting critically endangered and threatened species such as Grauer’s gorillas, golden lion tamarin monkeys, and leatherback […]