Ethnographic Mapping
Ethnographic maps covering 36 million acres across the Suriname-Brazil border region. In the northeast Amazon (Suriname-Brazil border region), ACT and its indigenous partners have created ethnographic maps covering 36 million acres (an area larger than New York State) and defining territorial boundaries, resources, and sites of spiritual significance. In Suriname, the maps cover two-thirds of the nation's area. Learn more...
Full mapping of the Xingu Indigenous Reserve, a priority conservation area in Brazil. In the Brazilian Amazon, ACT partnered with the Brazilian government and the 14 tribes of the reserve to map and improve management of the 7.5 million acres that comprise the territory and borderlands of the Xingu Indigenous Park, considered the single most important biocultural conservation priority in the Brazilian Amazon. Learn more...
Management of Indigenous Lands
Comprehensive, long-term sustainable management plans for the Suruí people. In the western Brazilian Amazon, ACT helped the Suruí people develop a comprehensive sustainable management plan for some of the most threatened forests in the Amazon. Learn more...
Collaboration with Google Earth to train Suruí representatives to help them monitor and deter incursions into their traditional lands. The Google Earth training program has since been implemented by ACT in three other regions of the Colombian Amazon. Learn more...
Indigenous-driven Land Protection
Launching of the first indigenous park guard training course in the northeast Amazon. ACT has instituted the first indigenous park guard training course in the northeast Amazon, a program that has the support and collaboration of the International Ranger Federation. ACT also has instituted a parallel course for government and NGO staff of northern Brazil; the combined trainees' efforts are greatly increasing the available manpower for on-the-ground protection in the northeast Amazon. Through 2009, over 120 indigenous guards and over 150 non-indigenous guards had been trained through this program. Learn more...
Collaboration with Suriname's government to design that country's first official national indigenous park ranger training program. The program had its first session in November 2008 with ACT's guidance. Learn more...
Assistance in the establishment of the Alto Fragua Indi Wasi National Park. In the Andean forests of Colombia, ACT collaborated with the Ingano tribe and the national government in the establishment of the Alto Fragua Indi Wasi National Park, a 168,000–acre conservation area of unique biocultural diversity specifically designed for joint management by the area's indigenous communities and the Colombian environmental ministry – the first of such kind in that nation. In 2003, this effort was highlighted as one of the most progressive and promising conservation initiatives in the Neotropics at the World Parks Conference in Durban, South Africa, a conference that convenes once a decade. Learn more...
Collaboration to create a new category of protected reserve. ACT worked with the Kofán people of the Putumayo and the Colombian National Parks Service to establish an entirely new category of protected reserve, the 22,000-acre Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plant Sanctuary. Learn more...
Sustainable Development
Supporting food security within indigenous communities. For five indigenous groups across 38 reserves, ACT has sponsored the establishment of over 50 community gardens and over 1,000 acres of sustainable agriculture containing nearly 800 traditional crops. Learn more...
Integrated Healthcare
Traditional medicine clinics in Suriname. In the rainforests of southern Suriname, ACT has a longstanding program – carried out by tribal shamans and their apprentices in partnership with the principal primary care provider to the region – seeking the promotion of effective traditional medicine and its integration into the national healthcare model. To this end, ACT has constructed traditional clinics in four villages to be operated by the traditional healers. In 2003, this effort was selected among a handful of global initiatives for UNESCO/NUFFIC's Best Practices Using Indigenous Knowledge. As a result of this work, the World Bank awarded a Development Marketplace grant to ACT's integrated medicine project, the first such award made for a Suriname-based initiative. Learn more...
Strengthening Indigenous Culture
Shamans and Apprentices: Keeping traditional knowledge alive in the Amazon. For five tribes of the Colombian Amazon, ACT provides support for 96 traditional healers and their apprentices, allowing them to focus on the restoration of ancestral medicinal practices in their communities. In southern Suriname, ACT's flagship "Shamans and Apprentices" program provides stipends and structured educational environments for younger tribal members to learn the ancestral medicinal practices of elder shamans. Learn more...
Women's Programs
Supporting and empowering women healers. In Colombia, ACT supported the creation and continues to sponsor the operations of the first network of women shamans in the entire northwest Amazon. ACT built a dedicated center for their use that can accommodate 90 individuals for overnight stays. Learn more...
