Storytelling Maps

Learn about the culture, geography, and history of Amazonian rainforest communities — and the environmental and political threats which they face — through the following works of map-driven digital storytelling such as ESRI story maps, created by the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT).

Living Territories: Stories of Territorial Justice

Join the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) for stories of the ways in which our work to improve territorial rights is helping to empower communities to help manage and preserve some of the world’s most critical ecosystems.

Palabras de Vida

A participatory investigation of the collection of the Ethnographic Museum of Leticia from indigenous perspectives, with a focus on the Magütá (Tikuna), Yukuna, Makuna, and Gente del Centro (Murui-muina and related groups). Digital platform created by Amazon Conservation Team in collaboration with Banco de la República.

Collective Rights Violated During the Pandemic

Cartography of 2017 cases of collective rights violations in six Latin American countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, including an analysis of how communities have defended their territories.

25 Years of Biocultural Conservation: The Amazon Conservation Team's 25th Anniversary

For the last 25 years, ACT’s decisions have been guided by close consultation with our partner communities, particularly the elders, who have defined our priorities in the fight for ancestral land rights and protection.

Lands of Freedom: The oral history and cultural heritage of the Matawai Maroons in Suriname

Learn about the oral history and cultural heritage of a Surinamese Afro-descendant community who fought for their right to exist in the rainforest centuries ago (2020, English and Dutch)

Violated Collective Rights: The multidimensional impact of extractive and infrastructure projects

Cartography of 102 cases of collective rights violations in six Latin American countries from 2017 to 2019, including an analysis of how communities have defended their territories.

The Amazonian Travels of Richard Evans Schultes

Explore the magical landscapes and indigenous cultures of the the Colombian Amazon through the travels of the legendary ethobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. (2018, English and Spanish)

Take a trip to the frontier of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon, where illicit actors are coercing local indigenous communities to cut down valuable trees through systems of insurmountable debt. (2018, Spanish)
Learn about the important role of indigenous land rights in tropical forest conservation and see how recent advances in indigenous land titling in Colombia are supporting regional conservation efforts. (2017, English and Spanish)
Explore the unique life and travels of Keeng Kumu, an indigenous Waiwai mapping expert from the northeast Amazon, through maps, photos, and biographical narrative. (2017, English and Dutch)
Learn about the political and legal struggles of the Sarayaku community in Ecuador against unwanted petroleum exploitation on their ancestral lands. (2016, English and Spanish)
Suriname's vast and ancient rainforests remain one of the world's best-kept natural secrets, but the global demand for an age-old mineral threatens to destroy them. (2015, English)