Five conservation stories to celebrate in 2025
From rainforest headwaters to coastal mangroves, 2025 was a year of quiet victories and powerful partnerships. Together with Indigenous and local communities across Central and South America, we helped safeguard forests, rivers, coastlines, and wildlife—while also strengthening the food systems, livelihoods, and cultural knowledge that make those ecosystems thrive. Because in the Amazon and beyond,…
Read MoreProtecting a Global Food Staple: Statement on Cassava Disease
The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is monitoring the potential spread of Witches’ Broom disease in cassava crops across the Guianas. The fungal pathogen Ceratobasidium causes broom-like shoots and can sharply reduce yields of one of the world’s most important staple foods. “Cassava is the major food crop in these regions imagine what crop failure would mean,” Dr. Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist and ACT president, said. “For millions of families,…
Read MoreThe Echoes of the Peoples at COP30
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 Indigenous peoples and traditional communities. Through marches, dialogues,…
Read More‘Our Territory Is Sacred’: Q+A with Ednalva Rondon
Ednalva Rondon grew up in Pakuera village, located within the Kurâ-Bakairi Indigenous Territory in the municipality of Paranatinga, Mato Grosso—one of Brazil’s most ecologically diverse regions, in the central-western part of the country. At 27, she is an active member of the Union of Indigenous Women of the Brazilian Amazon (UMIAB). This year, she is…
Read MoreSolving the problems of the Amazon will require serious commitments at COP30
Carolina Gil, regional director for the Amazon Conservation Team, wrote the following op-ed, published in the Colombian digital news outlet La Silla Vacía (“The Empty Chair”). The original, Spanish version of the piece can be found here. The Amazon is not just a territory that must be preserved, but a vital system that sustains the climatic,…
Read MoreCosta Rica Gathering 2025: Honoring 30 Years and Building ACT’s Future
From October 20 to October 22, 2025, ACT members from the USA, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Guianas gathered in Costa Rica for a transformative event. Joined by board members, donors, guests, and Indigenous partners — María del Rosario “Charito” Chicunque, Pablo Chindoy, and Marinete Tukano — the gathering focused on strategic conversations to align ACT around its next chapter while…
Read MoreOne Health, Indigenous Knowledge, and Climate Action at COP30
What is One Health The term One Health, translated as “One Single Health” or “Unified Health,” was formally adopted globally after the “One World, One Health” symposium held in 2004 in New York. Since then, international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and…
Read MoreA People Who Resist Collectively: The Gathering of the Wai Wai
The Wai Wai are an Indigenous people who live across portions of the Guianas (Guyana and Suriname) and northern Brazil, especially in the south of Brazil’s Roraima state. Informal records link their name, which derives from the Karib language family, to the armadillo. The armadillo may be perceived as emblematic of the Wai Wai identity…
Read MoreFrom Bogotá to Belém: What’s at stake for the future of the Amazon
Carolina Gil, Regional Director of the Amazon Conservation Team Colombia authored this op-ed, published August 27, 2025 in El Espectador, a daily newspaper in Colombia. OPINION | “Today it is clear: the environmental agenda is the political agenda. What happens in the Amazon will define not only the climatic future, but also the stability of…
Read MoreHow to protect isolated Indigenous peoples without harmful contact
Guardians of the Forest: Who are isolated Indigenous peoples? In some of the most pristine and remote forests of the Amazon live Indigenous peoples who have little to no contact with the outside world. They have no cellphones, cars, or computers, but they hold deep knowledge of the forest and an interconnected relationship with the…
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