On the banks of the Caquetá River, in Colombia, lives Elías García Ruíz, a member of the Murui Muina indigenous group who collects and cultivates native seeds such as that of the cacay tree (Caryodendron orinocense), which is disappearing from their territory because of selective logging of trees of high commercial value and an alarming advance of deforestation.
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The Waurá of the Ulupuene village in the Xingu, Brazil came to us with a problem: their water supply had become contaminated by soybean crop pesticides. These pesticides are carried annually to the rivers of midwestern Brazil, often rendering the water unsuitable for human consumption. The Waurá had one request: clean water drawn from an open deep well with the support of the Amazon Conservation Team.
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An important piece of this effort is allowing Waurá youth to experience sacred sites that, until now, have only existed in their imaginations and the stories of their elders. Because of this effort, we were thrilled when we were given the opportunity for ACT to visit Kamukuaká Cave, one of these sacred sites, with several Waurá villagers from multiple generations.
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In 1987, my friend Dr. Rob Peters and I were having dinner somewhere in Woodley Park on a temperate June evening. Although I had been involved in tropical forest conservation in Costa Rica, climate change was not a hot topic at the time. Rob, a biologist , began talking about his research. I remember his agitation at the fact that people were not paying attention to what he felt was a looming catastrophe for humanity: the rising temperature of our atmosphere.
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In May 2016, Roché Bhola, one of ACT-Suriname's field station managers, traveled for several weeks to the Trio indigenous village of Sipaliwini together with Dr,…
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The 2016 fieldwork for ACT’s joint project with the University of Utrecht and Surinamese universities is right around the corner. Since 2015, in southern Suriname, ACT has been conducting research in the Trio indigenous village of Kwamalasamutu, focusing on topics defined by the community.
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María Patricia Navarrete Serna is the Program Coordinator for ACT’s large-scale project Connected Landscapes in a Fragua-Churumbelos Conservation Corridor in Colombia. We were able to interview her and learn more about her past work, her current projects, and why she enjoys working for the Amazon Conservation Team.
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In September 2015, Anna Nantawi and Ketoera Aparaka, two Trio indigenous women from Suriname’s remote rainforest interior, departed for Rajasthan, India to begin a six-month solar power installation training course to benefit their community. On March 15, 2016, the women finally returned to Suriname.
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For a dedicated group of Matawai Maroon women who are cultivating pepper for income generation in villages along Suriname’s upper Saramacca River, ACT has provided an industrial pepper mill to alleviate their strenuous physical work.
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Over five days in late January 2016, for ten villages along Suriname’s upper Saramacca River populated by the nation’s Matawai Maroon community, the Avittiemauw Foundation and ACT led a workshop to enable the Matawai communities to continue their visualization of desired activities toward the proper development of their area.
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