United States
Growing the Next Generation of Indigenous Leaders in Colombia
Written by: Barbara Onkle When Indigenous students leave their communities to pursue higher education, they often face a difficult question: How can they gain new knowledge and opportunities without losing connection to the territories, cultures, and communities that shaped them? For us, the answer lies in investing in Indigenous youth while strengthening their ties to home. Through ACT’s Fellowship…
Read MoreSea Turtle Week: 7 Species, One Ocean, One Shared Future
Written by: Barbara Onkle Sea turtles have traveled the world’s oceans for millions of years. They connect marine ecosystems across vast distances, helping maintain the health of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, coastal habitats, and open oceans. Today, all seven species of sea turtle face growing threats, including habitat loss, plastic pollution, fisheries bycatch, climate change, and coastal…
Read MoreACT Featured in Podcast Series on the People and Forces Shaping the Amazon
Staff from the Amazon Conservation Team are featured across multiple episodes of Rewilding Amazonia, an eight-part investigative podcast series from Rewildology examining what it truly takes to protect the Amazon. Hosted by conservation biologist Brooke Mitchell, the series draws on nearly 30 hours of interviews with 22 scientists, practitioners, and community leaders across six Amazonian countries. New episodes release every Tuesday through June…
Read MoreAward-Winning Map Advocates for the Protection of Isolated Indigenous Peoples of South America
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is proud to announce that A Fight for Survival: Isolated Indigenous Peoples of South America, created in partnership with the International Working Group on Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (GTI-PIACI), has been named the Winner in the Environment category of the 2025 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition, hosted by Esri.…
Read MoreOceanography Podcast: Biocultural Coastal Conservation with Ancestral Tides
Juan Carlos Cruz, Manager of Science and Conservation with the Amazon Conservation Team’s Ancestral Tides initiative, recently joined the Oceanography podcast from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He spoke about how conservation on land and sea is connected — including the surprising relationship between jaguars and sea turtles — and how Ancestral Tides combines Indigenous knowledge…
Read MoreFlamingo Conservation on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast
In the brackish marshes of Colombia’s northern Caribbean coast, you’ll find one of the largest and most social bird species – the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) gathered in flocks of hundreds. This wetland system, between the sea and tropical dry forests of the Guajira Peninsula, serves as a vital feeding ground for diverse wildlife, including ducks, herons, hummingbirds,…
Read MoreBetween Body and Territory: Indigenous Women Facing the Climate Crisis
The impacts of the climate crisis on the health and ancestral knowledge of Indigenous women By Rudja Santos from Carta AmazôniaEdited by Méle Dornelas As COP30 brought the Amazon to the center of global discussions on the climate crisis at the end of 2025, the daily lives of Indigenous women reveal a dimension still largely absent from official…
Read MoreThe Echoes of the Peoples at COP30
Text by Méle Dornelas · Available in Portuguese. A historic mobilization marks advances in land demarcation and territorial protection. ACT stood alongside communities and helped elevate grassroots leadership in climate decision-making. The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), held in November in Belém (Pará), was defined by the strength and historic coordination of Brazil’s…
Read MoreOliver-Ximon Mwiinga (Oli) Joins ACT as an Ambassador
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is delighted to welcome Oliver-Ximon Mwiinga, an 11-year-old nature lover and emerging storyteller from The Hague, the Netherlands, as our newest Ambassador. Despite his young age, Oli has a remarkable sense of curiosity and deep empathy for the natural world. He loves football, animals, reading, and exploring — but above…
Read MoreTop ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)
As the world gathers for COP30 in Belém, Brazil, Dr. Mark Plotkin, co-founder and president of the Amazon Conservation Team, offers perspective on what thirty years of protecting the Amazon alongside Indigenous communities has taught us. He recently shared his reflections in an article for Mongabay, an independent environmental news organization. Read the full analysis…
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