Amazon Conservation Team

The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving South American rainforests. This small but robust outfit occupies a unique niche among other environmental organizations working in the tropics: ACT works hand in hand with local indigenous communities to devise and implement its conservation strategies Mission: The Amazon Conservation Team partners with indigenous people to protect the rainforest Brief History: ACT was founded in 1996 by ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and conservationist Liliana Madrigal with the mission of working with indigenous groups in tropical America to protect biodiversity and strengthen indigenous culture and health. Since it’s founding, ACT has partnered with more than 30 groups throughout South America on numerous initiatives. We believe that indigenous peoples are the best stewards of the rainforest because they have a physical, medical and spiritual tie to these lands Where We Work and What We Do: ACT conducts the vast majority of its biocultural conservation projects within the tropical forests of northern Amazonia. In each case, in-country conservation activities have been designed to address the most urgent needs of our partners and have been adapted to operate most effectively within their respective contexts Our current work focuses on the following areas: protection of isolated indigenous group, intercultural education (known to the ACT team as ethnoeducation), preservation of indigenous culture through associations of male and female healers, establishment of regional biocultural corridors, expansion of indigenous reserves, establishment of novel categories of protected areas that provide for indigenous management and/or recognize locations of significant cultural importance, sustainable land use through land zoning, management planning and traditional agriculture, indigenous park guards, Shamans and Apprentices program, traditional medicine clinics and sustainable income generation