Ariadna Gutiérrez Becomes Ambassador for the Amazon Conservation Team

The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is proud to announce that actress, model, and humanitarian Ariadna Gutiérrez has joined the organization as an Ambassador, lending her voice and platform to the protection of rainforests, Indigenous cultures, and ancestral wisdom across South America. Gutiérrez, who has long been passionate about environmental and cultural preservation, deepened her commitment…

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The Heart of the World: Conservation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia is the highest coastal mountain range on Earth. Just 25 miles from the Caribbean Sea, its snowcapped peaks rise dramatically from the coastline, creating a uniquely stunning landscape that holds profound spiritual and cultural meaning for the Indigenous Peoples of the region. For the Kogui, Arhuaco,…

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Oral Histories: Helping the Kogui Manage their Territory

Two of ACT’s objectives in our work at Jaba Tañiwashkaka, a coastal sacred site of the indigenous peoples of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region, are to increase the territorial management capacity of indigenous leadership and to establish conservation agreements between the local indigenous and non-indigenous communities. In contexts like the Sierra Nevada de…

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Colombian Government Signs Decree Recognizing the Ancestral Territory of the Indigenous Communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

Sierra Nevada Mountain View

On August 6, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree that recognizes the ancestral territory of the indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), as defined by the sacred sites of the Linea Negra (Black Line), a ring of sacred sites around the base of the SNSM that forms the boundary…

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Impact: Sacred Sites

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…

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