Amazon Conservation is committed to empowering people through strengthening and creating forest-based economies that are both climate-resilient and sustainable.
We partner with people like Misael Campos who brings his own wealth of knowledge of forest productivity to bolster our efforts to empower people through strengthening forest-based economies.
In the Bolivian Amazon, Brazil nuts and açaí berries are key forest products for regional economies and unique in that they can only be grown in a healthy forest ecosystem. To keep forests standing and help these forest economies adapt to a changing climate, we are working closely with local producer families like Misael Campos’s family in the Pando region to strengthen local forest-friendly businesses.
We have helped them build production facilities and safety equipment to increase the value of their products while minimizing the great risks of harvesting these forest products, provided training on conservation best practices, and connected them to new markets to minimize the role of intermediaries. These efforts make sure they can have a strong, fully sustainable business centered around protecting their forest home.
What’s more, producers like Misael are seeing the benefits of this support for their families and are eager to share this experience, technology, and equipment with others. Through empowering families in one community, your support continues to grow and have an exponential impact for families across the region!
Wednesday, September 7th, saw the first installment of our State of the Amazon Webinar Series. This edition’s focus was on Fires, Deforestation, and Climate Change. The webinar was co-hosted by us and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and featured speakers from five of our partners representing five key Amazonian countries. Participants had the privilege of hearing from Fundación EcoCiencia (Ecuador), Instituto Centro de Vida (Brazil), Conservación Amazónica – ACCA (Peru), Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA (Bolivia), Fundación para la Conservación y al Desarrollo Sostenible (Colombia), and MAAP and Global Forest Watch from the US. The broad scope of our panelists and partners allowed us to offer a vast perspective on the threats of fires, deforestation, and climate change and their relation to forest loss from a global scale, down to a focused “on-the-ground” perspective of the effects of those same threats in the 5 different countries represented therein. Apart from their country-specific experiences with environmental threats to the Amazon, each presenter spoke about how fires, deforestation, and climate change are interrelated and work together to create challenging hurdles to achieve a thriving Amazon. 
Our first presenter, Michelle Sims, from Global Forest Watch at World Resources Institute, presented a global overview on forest loss. She described what the data is telling us are the actual main drivers of forest loss today. She also presented where the most forest loss is happening by country, stating that Bolivia has overtaken Indonesia for third place for country experiencing most forest loss for the second year in a row. Interestingly, Michelle reports that commodities production, sourcing wood from tropical forests for manufacturing or clearing large swaths of forest for cattle raising, was also a significant driver of forest loss around the world in 2021.
Alice Thuault, the Executive Director of Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), then explained that the future of the Amazon depends scientists and advocacy groups to use the data these new technologies are showing us to reinforce each others’ efforts and best protect the forest. She pointed out that the Amazon is a vast region, one that spans at least 9 countries, that requires strong coordination and action from multiple entities to ensure its protection. Luckily, we have organizations like ICV and the rest that presented at this webinar who are actively heading this union of scientific data and advocacy work to better inform conservation efforts throughout the entire Amazon forest.
Elizabeth: You also mentioned, which I also remember from Mr. [Bruce] Babbitt’s talk about 8 or 10 years ago, how well you work with companies so that they can do business and find ways to do it without destroying everything.
Over the past month, Amazon Conservation inaugurated two new critical facilities that mark important milestones for our conservation efforts in Peru. The first is a new processing plant, which is fundamental in our 
The creation of this processing facility is the result of a public-private effort between private companies, regional governments, and local communities to ensure the preservation of the artisanal quality of cacao and copoazu (a tropical fruit also known as “white chocolate”). At the inauguration, María Elena Gutiérrez, Executive Director of Conservación Amazónica–ACCA, announced, “This is a day of celebration for the people of the Native Community of Infierno, with whom we have been working for many years, and represents a huge step in their ability to make a living from native cacao and copoazu, not only in national but also international markets. At Amazon Conservation, we believe that sustainable livelihoods are vital so that people can live with a healthy and resilient Amazon.”
On July 1, a new Andean Bear Interpretation Center was inaugurated in our Wayqecha Conservation Hub in Peru’s department of Cusco. Located in a cloud forest in the buffer zone of Peru’s Manu National Park, this area is critical for conservation efforts thanks to its high biodiversity and endemic species and its position as a natural corridor for plant and animal species pushed uphill by global warming, making it an ideal location to connect national and international visitors with nature and science.
The Andean Bear Interpretation Center is an important space for environmental education for local students and our science team at our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA in Peru as we work to better understand the behavior of the Andean bear, also known as the spectacled bear. A threatened species and the only bear in South America, the Andean bear is a keystone species in this region of Peru, currently under threat by habitat loss, forest fires, hunting, and animal trafficking. Since their territory covers long distances, they also play a critical ecological role in dispersing seeds across high elevations and thus regenerating forests.
Amazon Conservation’s Andean Bear Conservation Program, led by Ruthmery Pillco, has been working to protect their habitats and restore the plants that are part of their diet through conservation efforts alongside local populations, for whom the Andean bear is a cultural icon. Through citizen science, community-based reforestation, and environmental education efforts, we hope to restore the habitat necessary for this species’ survival and raise awareness about the vulnerability of cloud forest ecosystems in the face of climate change.
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