Media Coverage

Suriname community uses new open-source app to preserve storytelling traditions

December 13, 2018
Matawai boatsmen examining a map of their ancestral lands. Credit: Mirjam Gommers

The Matawai of Suriname, a community that once felt forgotten by the rest of the world, is breaking ground by…

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Breaking News: The Colombian Amazon Has the Same Rights as a Person

April 5, 2018

Colombia’s Supreme Court issued a historic ruling combating climate change in Latin America. According to the decision, the Amazon region is now subject to rights, similar to those assigned to the Atrato River, and the Presidency and regional entities must act urgently to protect it from deforestation.

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Storytelling empowers indigenous people to conserve their environments

November 27, 2017
Oral histories

Indigenous storytelling is a powerful tool for preserving biocultural diversity, says Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, an environmental researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Having heard stories in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Kenya and Madagascar, he has now proposed that storytelling could transform how conservationists work with native peoples. The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) embodies this philosophy. ACT partners with South American indigenous communities to preserve rainforests and traditional culture.

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Why We Invested: The Amazon Conservation Team

September 22, 2017

When thinking about where and when to invest, we look closely at windows of opportunity, during which our engagement can…

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Modern maps through traditional skills

August 25, 2017

For generations, indigenous people will talk about ‘their’ Keeng Kumu. His passion and talent have increased in value, through the enhancement and addition of modern technology. His passion for drawing maps of indigenous areas was supplemented with targeted training and resulted in a professional knowledge exchange.

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In digital defence of the Sarayaku community

April 19, 2017

In the Kichwa de Sarayaku community, technology and the natural world are joining forces to create a powerful coalition. Digital tools have become a weapon in the fight to protect the living forest which is home to this indigenous community, one of the oldest and most traditional settlements in Ecuador’s Amazon.

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Designing and implementing virtual data collection forms with indigenous communities in Suriname

March 9, 2017

In 2016, the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) received funding from the Small Grants Fund of Global Forest Watch (GFW) to evaluate the drivers of deforestation in threatened Amazonian ecosystems by training local indigenous communities to use the necessary technologies to ground-truth GFW alerts and collect pertinent field data.

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A digital map of the heart of the Amazon

January 23, 2017

The Amazon Conservation Team produced a virtual tour documenting the legacy and journeys of the biologist Richard Evans Schultes in Colombia. The project celebrates the 20th anniversary of the organization.

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Interactively Tracking Stolen Land in the Name of Oil

January 16, 2017

Kichwa activists in Ecuador have a new tool for showing the oil-related theft of their territory: an interactive digital story map with details of how the land has been stolen — sold mostly to oil companies— and is still dangerous because of leftover explosives.

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El pueblo Kichwa, Sarayaku y el Estado ecuatoriano: Mapeando realidades, cambiando percepciones

December 16, 2016

Gracias a la utilización de mapas disponibles aquí—, la Corte IDH pudo ver con claridad el impacto provocado por la actitud pasiva del Estado a la hora de retirar la pentolita, como la sentencia así indica, y las nuevas concesiones que afectarán a Sarayaku.

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