Blog Posts

School of the Arts: Ulupuene Villagers Visit Their Sacred Cavern

September 14, 2016

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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Debut of Mississippi Kite in the U.S. Capital Area Prompts Reflection on Climate Change

August 31, 2016

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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Drilling for drinking water in remote Sipaliwini, Suriname

June 24, 2016

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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Trio Community and Universities Join Forces to Monitor Forests

April 25, 2016

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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Restoring Forest Continuity and Empowering Communities: An Interview with ACT’s María Patricia Navarrete Serna

March 30, 2016

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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A Homecoming for Tepu’s Solar Engineers

March 29, 2016

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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Grinding Toward Progress along the Upper Saramacca River

March 28, 2016

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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Designing a Developed Future for Suriname’s Matawai Forest Community

March 28, 2016

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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Mobile Learning Technology for Rainforest Students

March 14, 2016

ACT has launched a pilot project that provides older students with tablets so that they may gather and share audiovisual materials to expand their understanding of coursework. A special thanks to the students of Apetina for sharing the following festive video, the first produced with their new tools.

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Colombia Indigenous Community of Curare – Los Ingleses Partakes in Second Training Targeting Territorial Protection

January 27, 2016

With support from ACT, members of the Curare – Los Ingleses indigenous reserve participated in their second mapping/GPS training workshop, in order to strengthen the community’s conservation monitoring program that seeks to protect their territory and that of indigenous isolated peoples.

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