Amazon Conservation Team

Governance and culture -in collaboration with the agustn codazzi geographic institute (igac)the entity of the government responsible for producing the nation's official mapsact has helped integrate indigenous place names into official geographic databases, an important official recognition of the value of local indigenous knowledge and a way to help preserve indigenous language, identity, and traditional cultural relationship with the territory. In 2024, with act's facilitation, traditional leaders of the cofn peoples of the putumayo department mapped 40 culturally important place names in their territory, information now available in an interactive, offline-enabled mapping platform that presents local community knowledge about their territories through integrated audio, video, photos and text. -in french guiana, in 2024, with act's guidance and support, oral histories were collected for aluku and wayana communities residing in border villages.-in the village of urunai in an extremely remote region of northern brazil, act is guiding the development of an indigenous medicine program to help document, revitalize, and teach younger generations the ancestral healing knowledge of their people. Central to that effort was construction of an intercultural health center with both western and traditional medicine treatment wings and space for meetings and workshops. In october 2024, the center was inaugurated. Six to seven communities living along the marapi river will be served by approximately 40 health apprentices working out of the urunai village center. -in november 2024, in brazil's cui cui indigenous territory, the miranha people from brazil and colombia had their first transboundary exchange, sponsored by act. During the colonial era, many miranha were forced to move from colombia to brazil because of the rubber trade, causing them to lose their native language. Since december 2023, the miranha group has been working on a project called "strengthening history, culture and rescue of the mother tongue" with act and other partners. The main goals are to recover their native language, reconnect with their history, and strengthen their culture and governance. In 2024, act helped the cui cui residents create records of their life stories, their history, and the formation of their territory. -traditional construction projects implemented with act's support in the communities of the four indigenous groups of colombia's sierra nevada de santa marta have improved the quality of life for hundreds of people and strengthened their recovery of ancestral practices and self-governance. 150 kankuamo families are benefitting from a healing and healthcare training center in the community of chemesquemena, built in 2024 using both traditional and western architectural techniques. Additionally in 2024, a ceremonial "house of thought" was built for the kankuamo reserve's primary schools.

Community livelihoods and well-being -in the amazon, many indigenous communities are disconnected from national electric grids, historically relying on diesel-powered generators that have harmful environmental impacts. In the caquet river region of colombia and in the loreto department of peru, across 2023 and 2024, act delivered 356 solar lamps and chargers across 34 communities. -in colombia, in multiple municipalities and river basins in three regionscaquet, putumayo, and the sierra nevada de santa martaact has provided indigenous and peasant communities with ecological stoves that can improve both forest health and human well-being, replacing traditional open-fire and/or propane stoves. In 2024, 57 stoves were installed, co-designed with community members. -in 2022, act, in partnership with the colombian national learning service (sena), began training indigenous youth from puerto leguzamo as nursing technicians to serve remote indigenous areas in putumayo, colombia. In may 2024, 27 indigenous youths graduated from the program. This is the first group of indigenous people in the municipality trained as indigenous healthcare personnel with the necessary certification to be hired as healthcare personnel in any public or private institution in colombia. -act supports initiatives with partner communities on stingless beekeeping (meliponiculture) in suriname, colombia and brazil. In suriname, as of 2024, there were ~400 hives of several species being managed by 77 beekeepers in three villages. Over 2024, the production of propolis (medicinal plant resin) and honey increased by 250% and profits increased by 300% per beekeeping family. -in colombia's sierra nevada de santa marta, as of 2024, five communities are benefitting economically from sea turtle nesting site conservation, ecological restoration and protection. Fifteen people in mexico, three in colombia, seven in panama and six in costa rica are benefitting directly through salaries and stipends.