What is the correlation between the protection of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and the protection of the Amazon?

By Daniel Aristizabal | November 26, 2018 |

Let’s start with a question. If you lived in South America, and had to run away from society, where would you hide? The most remote areas of the Amazon, where thousands of small rivers are born and eventually become giant waterways—which along the way irrigate millions of trees, and in their final destination feed the…

Read More

Conserving the Vast Biodiversity of the Colombian Amazon

By lchacon | November 19, 2018 |

The great wealth of biodiversity present in the Amazon is at serious risk of disappearing due to several threats, which must be addressed through the joint work of the various stakeholders in the region. One of the first steps in addressing this problem is to identify which species of flora and fauna are present in…

Read More

Colombian Government Approves Decree for the Protection of Isolated Indigenous Groups

By Amazon Conservation Team | July 18, 2018 |
National parkland

On July 17, 2018, the Colombian government approved a landmark national public policy for the protection of isolated indigenous groups. The policy was developed in a collaboration led by the Colombian Ministry of the Interior with the participation of governmental entities and local and regional indigenous organizations, supported by technical and legal assistance from the nonprofit Amazon Conservation Team (ACT). his groundbreaking national public policy was the first in the Amazon region directly led by the grassroots efforts of neighboring indigenous communities and indigenous organizations undergoing a process of free prior informed consent according to international regulations, thus resulting in an unprecedented integration of traditional spiritual worldviews in modern environmental protection strategies.

Read More

Impact: Sacred Sites

By Amazon Conservation Team | June 18, 2018 |
Kogi people in a group

We know that our partner communities can best safeguard their forests when they have access to their traditional territories, sustainable livelihoods, and intact traditions. But there is often more. The elders frequently tell us that in order for their communities to truly flourish, they need to control lands that are sacred to them. From our…

Read More

President Santos Announces a Decision Today

By Amazon Conservation Team | April 10, 2018 |
Members of indigenous community in Caqueta, Colombia work on a community map

After waiting 27 years, the indigenous governments of non-municipalized areas of the Amazon finally will be able to manage the money from their national government transfers without intermediaries.
In Leticia, the Presidency, the Ministries of the Interior, Finance and Agriculture, DANE (the Colombian national statistics agency and the Colombian National Planning Department recognized the governments of 36 indigenous reserves that occupy 26 million hectares of practically intact territory and that had existed in a state of legal limbo with respect to territorial zoning that prevented them, in effect, from governing what is theirs by law.

Read More

Aluakumá, the Big Bat: Oral Histories in a Waurá Community

By Antonio Peluso | November 21, 2017 |

Oral Histories in a Waurá Community: In the village of Ulupuene, which partners with ACT, two elders and community leaders passed away: the regional “keeper of songs and dances,” Yakuana, who took with him a vast wealth of knowledge about Waurá cultural practices; and most recently, Aluakumá (“Big Bat”), a village elder, shaman, and healer. Both men were revered, and their kin expressed that they had lost more than just a loved one—they had lost an unrecoverable repository of cultural knowledge.

Read More