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

Recently Established Chuyapi Urusayhua Conservation Area Protects Nearly 200,000 Acres of Forest, Over 1,500 Plant and Animal Species, and Essential Water Sources

On March 24, 2021 the Chuyapi Urusayhua Conservation Area in the Peruvian Amazon was officially established, finalizing a long term effort that we have supported since 2008. This vast conservation area protects 197,000 acres (80,000 hectares) of forests — 93% Amazonian and 7% Andean — that are home to 936 registered species of plants and […]

Using Comics to Inspire Children to Learn More About and Care for Amazonian Animals

This past World Wildlife Day, our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA in Bolivia uniquely told the stories of Amazonian animals through their original comics series “Once Upon a Time in the Forest”. The story stars a giant otter, an endangered species in the Amazon, who meets with forest friends around a campfire to […]

“Paco” Fish Farms Advance Aquaculture in the Peruvian Amazon

This February saw the installment of a fish farm that will help generate sustainable livelihoods in the Peruvian Amazon and act as an important food source for local people. Located in the small district of Inambari, Madre de Dios near major conservation areas like the extensive National Tambopata Reserve, this initiative contributes to the development […]