In the southern Amazon, ACT and its conservation partners are working to create a continuous conservation corridor integrating sections of three Brazilian rainforest states: the eastern portion of the state of Rondônia, the western portion of the state of Mato Grosso, and the southern portion of the state of Amazonas. The partners have designated this expanse the Mondé-Kwahiba Ethno-Environmental Conservation Corridor, with reference to the combination of areas containing speakers of two language groupings.
Effectively, the corridor has two heavily indigenous territorial poles, a Tupi-Kwahiba pole in the north, and a Tupi-Mondé pole in the south. Between these poles lies a large swath of forested land with little formal protection. By uniting these poles into a single ethno-environmental corridor, a contiguous stretch of forested land is created with the intent of buffering intense frontier pressures from Rondônia to the southwest, Mato Grosso to the east and Amazonas to the northwest, as well as of maintaining its high levels of cultural and biological diversity. In the corridor, ten indigenous groups reside in 13 reserves, all together covering 5,110,027 hectares. Meanwhile, the 33 protected areas in the corridor have a combined area of 3,359,131 hectares.
An anchor site of the planned corridor is Rondônia's Sete de Setembro Indigenous Reserve, home of the Surui people. For a description of ACT's extensive biocultural conservation work with the Surui people over many years, click here.
The Suruí experiences now are being shared with the neighboring tribes. In southern Amazonas state, ACT has partnered with the Diahui people to generate an ethno-environmental survey-essential as a baseline for conservation planning-and to train a first set of park guards. Additionally, the Zoró tribe in the Amazonian lowlands of Mato Grosso will begin implementing their own ethno-environmental survey that will support the development of a full management plan. Meanwhile, the Cinta Larga tribe of Rondônia has formalized an agreement with the Suruí to learn from their experiences with ACT and other partner groups and coordinate activities.
