Amazon Conservation Team

06/01/2026

From territorial mapping to Indigenous education and forest protection, these years marked new paths for biocultural conservation across the Amazon 🌿

Between 2002 and 2005, communities across Brazil, Colombia, and Suriname strengthened territorial governance, protected ancestral knowledge, and built initiatives that continue flowing today.

Explore ACT’s 30-Year StoryMap.

Link: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/710dea02c885420594f25ec52a84d729 -n-mwNaR0

05/28/2026

Territories inhabited by Indigenous Peoples in Isolation overlap with some of the most intact ecosystems in South America.

For these communities, forests are not just land — they are home, memory, and the foundation of their way of life.

Protecting these territories through No Contact policies is not only a matter of human rights. It is also essential for protecting biodiversity, climate regulation, and ecological continuity across the Amazon and Gran Chaco.

Working alongside Indigenous communities, the Amazon Conservation Team supports efforts to strengthen the recognition and protection of these territories.

🌿 Protecting territory means protecting life.

Explore more in our StoryMap A Fight for Survival: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/abf6ac19ba9442a7b7594eaf944ca6d0

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Lvw7ChRjwL0

05/25/2026

For 30 years, the Amazon Conservation Team has walked alongside Indigenous peoples and traditional communities across the Amazon, supporting the protection of territories, cultures, languages, and ancestral knowledge systems.

This first chapter of our journey — 1996 to 2001 — traces the beginnings of that path: from the creation of programs connecting shamans and Indigenous youth, to gatherings that strengthened traditional medicine, the inauguration of the first Indigenous medicine clinic in Suriname, and pioneering participatory mapping initiatives in the Amazon.

These moments are part of a larger story shaped through listening, collaboration, and the enduring knowledge of forest peoples.

Explore ACT’s 30-Year StoryMap: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/710dea02c885420594f25ec52a84d729 -n-d8JHO5

05/23/2026

We’re thrilled to announce that Solutions Storytelling Project LatAm is a Silver Winner at the Telly Awards () as a Social Impact Series!

This award is a reflection of the amazing work of the 16 fellows and 16 organizations that were part of SSP.

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🌎 SSP is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project, a .foundation-supported initiative from that connects regional filmmakers and social innovators to produce solutions-focused short documentaries that catalyze positive change.

05/22/2026

For decades, Indigenous communities in the Guianas, with the support and guidance of Amazon Conservation Team - Guianas, have worked to preserve and share their knowledge of plants, animals, fungi, and forests, in their own languages and from their own perspectives.

What began with handwritten Indigenous names in field guides during visits to villages across Suriname has grown into a digital biodiversity database documenting flora and fauna in Trio, Wayana, local Surinamese languages, and scientific names, alongside photographs and other information.

This World Biodiversity Day, we are proud to re-launch the updated Biodiversity of the Guianas database, a freely accessible, community-driven platform that continues to grow as new species, photographs, and knowledge are added.

As this database remains an ongoing effort, we warmly welcome contributions of names, photographs, and knowledge from communities, researchers, and partners.

Explore the database:
https://biodb.act-suriname.org/

05/20/2026

Did you know the Amazon is home to more than 200 species of stingless bees? 🐝

These native pollinators are essential to healthy forests and play a vital role in sustaining Amazon ecosystems through pollination.

Their honey is unlike conventional honey — lighter, more liquid, and deeply connected to the surrounding forest. Some species can even produce rare blue honey when collecting nectar from purple flowers in Colombia.

On World Bee Day, we celebrate the small pollinators making a big impact.

In Suriname and Colombia, the Amazon Conservation Team works alongside Indigenous and rural communities to support stingless beekeeping programs rooted in traditional knowledge — strengthening livelihoods, supporting conservation, and helping protect forests for future generations.

🌿 Small bees. Big impact.

👉 Learn more:

Did you know the Amazon is home to more than 200 species of stingless bees? 🐝These native pollinators are essential to healthy forests and play a vital role...

05/18/2026

There are stories that follow the course of rivers. Stories that connect peoples, territories, knowledge systems, languages, and forests into a living network of care for the Amazon.

To celebrate ACT’s 30th anniversary, we launched a StoryMap built from memories, images, maps, and shared journeys created alongside Indigenous peoples and traditional communities over the past three decades.

A path shaped by listening, partnership, and collective action — from the forest to the coast, across rivers, villages, and territories that continue protecting some of the most biodiverse places on the planet.

Explore the full StoryMap:
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/710dea02c885420594f25ec52a84d729

05/17/2026

Even without direct contact, outside pressures continue to reach the forests of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation.

Across the Amazon and the Gran Chaco, mining, logging, roads, oil extraction, and illegal economies threaten the territories that sustain their mobility, autonomy, and ways of life.

Often, Indigenous monitoring networks are the first to recognize these changes — through territorial patrols, shared knowledge, and constant observation of their lands.

At the Amazon Conservation Team, we support these community-led efforts by strengthening territorial monitoring and early warning systems, always guided by one essential principle:

No Contact.

Respecting the decision to remain isolated is fundamental to protecting Indigenous Peoples in Isolation.

🌿 Explore more in our StoryMap "A Fight for Survival", winner of the 2026 ArcGIS StoryMaps Competition.

🌿Watch our video on YouTube:

Even without direct contact, outside pressures continue to reach the forests of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation.Across the Amazon and the Gran Chaco, mining,...

05/15/2026

The hands that shape the world.

In the Aguarico River basin in Ecuador, Siekopai women transform clay into memory. Each vessel holds a way of understanding the land, of relating to the forest, the river, and the cycles that sustain life.

This video is just a glimpse of everything the Siekoya Remolino community has to share. Very soon, the Amazon Food Atlas will unveil its complete map of Amazonian knowledge. Stay tuned for what’s coming! 🌎

This is a project designed and developed by the Amazon Conservation Team and is an initiative of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL), which is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the World Bank.