Amazon Conservation Team

10/12/2026

Indigenous Peoples are not only connected to some of the world’s most biodiverse territories, they are leading the way in protecting them🌿

This Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States, we celebrate Indigenous leadership, living knowledge, and the communities defending their lands, cultures, and biodiversity in a changing climate.

At ACT, we believe conservation works best when communities lead and their knowledge and decisions are at the center.

Protecting the future starts with listening to those who have been shaping it all along.

10/09/2026

The latest Living Planet Report highlights the scale of global biodiversity loss, and the urgent need to act. As Dr. Mark Plotkin, President of the Amazon Conservation Team, shares in this article, we must redouble efforts in forest and marine protection, Indigenous empowerment, and endangered species monitoring and recovery.

At ACT, we work alongside Indigenous Peoples and local communities to protect biocultural diversity, strengthen territorial rights, and support community-led conservation. Protecting nature means recognizing the vital role of the people who have cared for these ecosystems for generations.

Read the article from Sierra magazine:

World Wildlife Fund releases its biennial report with grim news and some cause for hope

10/07/2026

For the Kogui Indigenous people of northern Colombia, mapping sacred sites supports territorial monitoring while also creating opportunities for younger generations to learn from mamos—their spiritual leaders—about the history, meaning, and role of these places.

With technical and programmatic support from the Amazon Conservation Team, mapping technicians of Organización Gonawindua Tayrona, the Kogui Indigenous organization, recently strengthened their skills in advanced mapping and data collection technologies, building on an ongoing process that has already surveyed more than 2,500 sacred sites across Kogui territory.

These tools help turn territorial knowledge and data into maps, dashboards, reports, and other resources that support Kogui-led monitoring, planning, and decision-making.

09/21/2026

Maps do more than show us where places are. They shape how territories are understood, what knowledge is visible, and the decisions made around them 🗺️

When communities help create those maps, they can document their territories, tell their own stories, define their priorities, and strengthen their role in decisions about their lands.

As AI and predictive technologies reshape how we understand climate risk, local knowledge remains essential. Technology can help connect what communities know with the decisions and resources that follow, but it also raises important questions:

Who owns the data? Who decides how it is used? And how can technology support communities without taking control away from them?

This Climate Week NYC, we are bringing together perspectives from conservation, humanitarian mapping, technology, and journalism to explore these questions and what community-led mapping can make possible.

Participatory Mapping for Conservation, Rights & Community Leadership

📍 New York City
📅 September 24, 2026

Hosted by ACT + Esri
With Humanitarian OpenStreetMap + Solutions Lab

Video:

Maps do more than show us where places are. They shape how territor...

09/18/2026

Raised on the Osa Peninsula, Manuel shares a deeply personal connection to its forests and communities.

His book, Osa From the Inside, traces his family's journey from early pioneers who relied on the land to later generations dedicated to its preservation.

It is a powerful story of family, place, and our evolving relationship with nature.

Take a moment to explore Manuel's story and discover Osa From the Inside.

Read now: https://www.flipsnack.com/amazonteam/osa-from-the-inside

09/17/2026

During Climate Week NYC, we’ll explore strategies for the protection of Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation.

Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation face growing pressures on their territories. Protecting these communities requires approaches that bring together territorial monitoring, Indigenous knowledge, conservation, responsible data practices, and strong partnerships.

On September 23, Amazon Conservation Team will join Overbrook Foundation, Rainforest Foundation Norway, AIDESEP, and Solutions Insights Lab for a moderated panel exploring the role of Indigenous rights and geospatial technologies in safeguarding territories inhabited by Indigenous Peoples Living in Voluntary Isolation.

The conversation will address Indigenous leadership, ethical approaches to sensitive geographic information, territorial protection, and the balance between visibility and community safety.

📅 September 23, 2026 | 10:00–11:30 AM
📍 Overbrook Foundation Offices | 622 Third Avenue, New York City

Register to join us → https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-discussion-indigenous-peoples-living-in-voluntary-isolation-tickets-1999724432609?aff=oddtdtcreator

09/16/2026

During Climate Week NYC, we’re bringing together leaders from conservation, humanitarian response, technology, and journalism to explore the power of participatory mapping.

How can community-led mapping strengthen Indigenous rights, support conservation and climate resilience, and help communities maintain greater ownership of the data that represents their territories?

Join Amazon Conservation Team, Esri, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and Solutions Journalism Network for an interactive conversation on the opportunities, challenges, and future of participatory mapping.

📅 September 24, 2026
⏰ 10:00 AM–12:00 PM
📍 Esri Offices, 368 9th Avenue, New York City

Register to join us → https://www.climateweeknyc.org/event-search/participatory-mapping-for-conservation-rights-and-community-leadership

09/15/2026

Keeng Kumu has walked more of his territory than any map will ever show 🗺️🌿

A Waiwai cartographer from Guyana, Keeng first sketched these lands by hand, long before he ever held a GPS.

Since then, he has helped communities across Guyana and Suriname map their territories, documenting rivers and their names, gardens, sacred places, and knowledge that conventional maps often leave out.

For Keeng, mapping is about more than coordinates. It is about making territory visible, strengthening connections to place, and passing knowledge forward.

And his story is still being written, one path, one student, one community at a time.

Link:

Keeng Kumu has walked more of his territory than any map will ever ...

09/10/2026

In the chagra, people cultivate food, and also language, kinship and the ability to read the forest.

Chagra, roça, conuco, chacra. Each People has its own name and its own way of making one, but all of them answer to the same thing: a system that produces food without exhausting the soil, passed from one generation to the next through shared work.

📹

The Amazon Food Atlas is a regional set of knowledge products developed by the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), and commissioned by the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL) — a program financed by the and led by the

09/07/2026

When a certain tree flowers, it is time to plant. When the river rises, it is time to fish something else. Ecological calendars hold that knowledge in a single piece.

They are not a record of the past. They are a working tool, used every year, and today they also name what is shifting: rains arriving late, harvests sliding into other months, species that no longer appear when they should.

📹

The Amazon Food Atlas is a regional set of knowledge products developed by the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), and commissioned by the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL) — a program financed by the and led by the