Posts by Amazon Conservation Team

Yachaikury—the ACT-sponsored ethnoeducation school of the Inga people—may soon be funded by the government for its master architectural plan. By improving dormitories, classrooms and bathrooms, Yachaikury will become an even better place for children to live and learn.

This month, ACT launches its monthly giving program—a way for donors like you to provide our indigenous partners, such as Alex Miguel Botina (pictured above), with a reliable, steady source of funding for projects. Those who join will enjoy a few perks including a tour of the ACT office and a bracelet made by one…

Through generous funding from Nature’s Path and the Tico Torres Foundation, ACT created Junior Park Ranger manuals in partnership with our trained park guards. These booklets teach children about local flora and fauna, as well as basic principles of conservation.

On September 6, 2014, ACT lost two wonderful and beloved ACT colleagues. Daniel Matapí served as a field coordinator for our work with indigenous groups of the Colombian Amazon, particularly with groups associated with his lineage, the Matapí, Yukuna, Nonuya, and Muinane of the lower Caquetá. He was born and raised in the Amazon, spoke four languages, and was equally adept at training western scientists, negotiating with tribal leaders, launching field programs, and hacking trails through the jungle. His unfailing good humor and indefatigable optimism will never be forgotten.​

ACT-trained indigenous park guards play a critical role in monitoring traditional lands, data gathering, and environmental education in South America’s most forested country. This month, 13 new recruits will begin training in the villages of Kwamalasamutu, Tepu, Apetina and Sipaliwini.

In March, ACT’s Liliana Madrigal traveled with ACT board members to Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to participate in the christening of two new Kogi temples. The buildings were constructed on Jaba Tañiwashkaka, a sacred site that ACT worked to purchase in 2013 with Kogi leaders and the Colombian government. This land will now be forever protected from development.

ACT cartographer Brian Hettler has spent over a year collecting all available information on the spactacular Chiribiquete national park. Starting with the initial map begun by Harvard explorer Hamilton Rice in 1907, Hettler has pored over Google Earth images, aerial photographs, and dusty maps in the Library of Congress, and has compiled the most detailed map of Chiribiquete yet assembled.