For the past five years, our sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA, has implemented important conservation projects on the ground with support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), including safeguarding water sources for local Amazonian communities and leading conservation of endangered species in protected areas. Now they are taking the next step in this partnership to elevate the importance of conserving the Bolivia Amazon.

CEPF’s goal is to protect the world’s biodiversity hotspots, including the tropical Andes, the richest and most biodiverse region on the planet. With over 15 years of experience protecting the tropical Andes in the Bolivian Amazon, Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA has been chosen by CEPF to be the Regional Implementation Team for Bolivia, joining two other environmental organizations from Peru and Colombia in a conservation effort to preserve 28 key biodiversity areas in five conservation corridors across three countries. With this, we hope to improve the protection and management of key biodiversity areas, safeguard priority species threatened worldwide, and provide strategic leadership and effective coordination for conservation across the Amazon.

“The joint work between CEPF and the local partners across the Tropical Andes Hotspot has resulted in important advances for the conservation of the region,” said Marcos Terán, Executive Director of Conservación Amazónica – ACEAA. “This new phase poses the opportunity of consolidating and scaling up these achievements.”

Click here to learn more about this project.

This month we launched the Amazon Fruit and Climate Change Observatory in Bolivia, which is the culmination of a 10-month project that focuses on strengthening the management of non-timber forest products in the Bolivian Amazon rainforest such as açaí, Brazil nuts, cacao or copoazu. Not only do non-timber forest products help prevent deforestation by placing economic value on keeping forests standing, the diversification of fruits helps local communities mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The Amazonian Fruits and Climate Change Observatory is a virtual repository that compiles and shares important information on Amazonian forest products such as Brazil nuts, açaí, cacao, copoazu, majo and royal palm. Additionally, it provides updates on the state of forests and climate change in the department of Pando, Bolivia. It also features geographic information and technical documents with relevant information on the value chains of the region’s main Amazonian fruits, and tools that allow the socioeconomic monitoring of a specific harvesters’ initiative and production. Users are also granted access to a compilation of documents with information relevant to climate change and forest-sector related public policies.

Through the Observatory, this information is made available to all stakeholders involved in the processing of forest products, including local harvesters, public and private technical assistance institutions, private entrepreneurs and government decision-makers. This directly benefits around 87,500 people linked to the harvest of Amazonian fruits in Pando, Bolivia, including indigenous and local communities, along with 9 local enterprises developing capacity for the use of the information generated by the Observatory.

Thanks to the harvest of Amazonian fruits, deforestation and slash-and-burn are low in Pando compared to other parts of the Bolivian Amazon, turning this area into a refuge for the Bolivian lowlands. As the Observatory website states, “A healthy forest is a productive forest. A productive forest is a forest resilient to climate change.”

This project would not be possible without the support of the EUROCLIMA+ program. For more information about the observatory please visit the website here.

Right in time for the new year, the Peruvian Government officially declared our Los Amigos Conservation Area as a nationally recognized conservation area through Ministerial Resolution 245-2021-MINAM, citing its importance in preserving the forest cover that contributes to the conservation of the Amazon rainforest ecoregion’s biodiversity. This recognition and achievement for the Peruvian Amazon reaffirms our commitment to the protection of the myriad of species and ecosystems found in one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.

Los Amigos will now be included in official registration documents from Peru’s National System of Protected Natural Areas, which detail each area’s biological, environmental or landscape conservation value. The Peruvian government will also issue an official map of Los Amigos and provide training and advice for its planning and management if needed. ​​Additionally, Los Amigos’s national recognition helps protect it against interests from third parties, such as those who may assess its large tracts of forest as prospective cash cows for logging or mining.

Located in one of the largest and richest regions in terms of diversity of flora and fauna in the country, the Los Amigos landscape includes a mosaic of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, including palm swamps, bamboo thickets, oxbow lakes, and various types of flooded and non-flooded forests. Wildlife is abundant, including 12 globally threatened species and abundant Amazonian fauna including giant otters, harpy eagles, spider monkeys and jaguars. Los Amigos and its surrounding areas register a total 617 species of birds, including threatened and endangered species, classifying it as one of the richest bird stations in the entire Amazon. The area also contains 11 species of primates and by way of comparison, all of Costa Rica holds only four.

Moreover, the Los Amigos Biological Station on the property has been the subject of various investigations on ecology, biological inventories, animal behavior and interactions between plants and animals. The station has hosted more than 213 research projects and produced 223 publications, including biological inventories of more than 30 types of organisms. It truly is a hub for research on this vital ecosystem.

Interested in learning more about Los Amigos Conservation Hub or visiting the biological station? Click here for more information.

In 2022, the Amazon Conservation Association looks forward to another year of maximizing the synergy of people, science, and innovation to protect and conserve the Amazon.

Here are three simple resolutions for you to join us in starting the year with purpose to make a real difference for nature in 2022:

• Support your community and forests by shopping from local environmentally-conscious and forest-friendly businesses.

• Join our Wild Keepers monthly giving program to amplify your impact by joining forces with other nature advocates to accomplish more through this powerful community effort.

• Create a free estate plan to protect the people, pets, places, and causes you care about. We have partnered with FreeWill to offer our community a trusted, free online platform that makes creating a will quick and easy. Start your plan today!

Take a few moments to start the new year well — for you, your loved ones, and the Amazon.

It is with heavy hearts that we lament the passing of renowned ecologist and long-time friend of Amazon Conservation Dr. Thomas Lovejoy this December 25. He was 80 years old.

Tom was a long-time advocate of conservation playing a prominent part in ensuring that the Amazon is a global priority for conservation since the 1970s. Among his numerous and profound contributions to the field, Tom coined the term “biological diversity”, helped develop the game-changing “debt-for-nature swap” model, and most recently, along with his colleague Carlos Nobre defined the Amazon’s tipping point. His many achievements have helped move conservation forward both in policy and on the ground.

Since 2009, Tom had been a member of Amazon Conservation’s Board of Directors, helping guide the strategic vision and direction of our organization.

Our Executive Director John Beavers, who worked closely with Tom as we developed and launched our 2020-2030 strategy, described him today as “such a dedicated, strategic, knowledgeable and faithful advocate of the Amazon and of biodiversity who enriched our understanding, improved our work, and provided the glimmers of hope that we needed to continue to advance our conservation efforts. It was such an honor to meet with him each time, knowing the many, many other people and institutions he was helping to advance the cause through his wealth of knowledge, experience, and caring.”

Our Founder Adrian Forsyth had many experiences with Tom in the rainforest, sharing that “Tom worked tirelessly until his last days. His accomplishments and awards were huge and many. Yet despite fame and frenetic schedule, he found time to help and listen to anyone who asked. Being kind was his natural state. Against the challenges of his mission, he smiled a lot. You could count on him after a grueling trip to come to your meeting in dapper, good spirits and to make an incisive observation or encouragement. With his passing, each of us, and indeed, our planet, has lost something, but far less than what we have gained from his exemplary life.“

Tom shared his love for the Amazon in an article on Yale News, describing what stepping foot on the Amazon felt like: “Before I got to the Amazon I was unable to truly anticipate what it would be like there. People imagine that in the tropical rainforest things are jumping out at you all the time, but in fact, it’s much more subtle than that. You’re dealing with hundreds of species of trees, and hundreds of shades of green. And it’s all a great blur when you first step into it. But then you begin to perceive the differences, and you begin to see the insect life. You hear a lot, and not just birds, but insects and amphibians and the like. Pretty quickly you do understand that this is one of the most diverse communities on Earth.” 

In one of his last writings for the New York Times, Tom spoke on the links between climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and the importance of protecting intact forests: “We’re losing a battle we can win, but only by keeping trees on our side…. We must let the big forests stand.”

His legacy of championing nature will not be forgotten and we will carry on the fight to keep the Amazon standing in his honor. As he wisely said, “As long as something still exists in the world it can be saved.”

Rest in peace, friend. 

What do you wish for this holiday season? For Juliana Varga Sanchez, from the Beni region of the Bolivian Amazon, she hopes that deforestation doesn’t futher imperil the blue-throated macaw, an endangered species she cares for deeply.

19-year-old Juliana Varga wants to follow in her dad’s footsteps to protect her forest home and the endangered blue-throated macaws within. You can help her do that.

Since she was 7 years old, Juliana has been accompanying her father in patrolling their forest for illegal deforestation as part of a community patrol program. She also spends mornings and evenings from July to October supplying collected rainwater to drinking areas that blue-throated macaws can access during Bolivia’s harsh dry season, when water is scarce. “Blue-throated macaws are wonderful,” she describes, “When I fill the water, they’ll sit and watch me, and when I’m alone sometimes I’ll talk to them…I feel content to help in this way.”

Now 19, Juliana continues to patrol forests with her dad and hopes that people will come to value and protect the nature that sustains them. “Learn about nature,” she encourages. “The importance that it has and the importance of the animales within, so there isn’t as much extinction.”

With the same hope in mind, Amazon Conservation works with indigenous-managed territories across the region, such as the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in Peru and the Waorani territory in Ecuador, to provide them with the technology, resources, and training to better monitor and protect their lands and forest resources.

This holiday season, you can help young environmentalists like Juliana Varga Sanchez protect their forest homes and the important animal species within. Additionally, thanks to the generosity of a longtime supporter, every donation that we receive by December 31st will be matched up to $150,000.

Can we count on your support to double your impact for the Amazon?

Dear Friend of the Amazon,

Blanca Pedraza, her daughter, and her niece (shown right) are all part of the Toromonas indigenous community, located deep in the forests of the northwestern Bolivian Amazon. Like many in her community, Blanca’s family depends on the harvest of organic forest products – like Brazil nuts and açaí berries – to survive. Brazil nuts are a flagship product in this part of the Amazon and vital for local economies and forest conservation. That is because when communities harvest these forest products that cannot grow in a monoculture, they protect the forests from being used for destructive purposes – like cattle ranching and unsustainable agriculture.

With your support, we’ve partnered with the Toromonas to make their harvest even more fruitful. As part of our efforts to enhance the management of Brazil nut trees, we’re helping the Toromonas women’s club transform raw Brazil nuts into organic products that can be sold for a higher price. The club, which Blanca is a member of, is focusing on producing Brazil nut oil, a delicacy in high demand by the country’s growing gastronomy scene. Helping local businesses like theirs grow strong while keeping forests standing is one of the many ways you are helping us achieve a thriving Amazon.

This holiday season we are especially grateful for your kind support in keeping conservation moving forward and for helping Blanca and families like hers on the front lines of forest conservation. Thank you for spreading joy this season, and happy holidays to you and your family!

Sincerely,

Your friends at Amazon Conservation

Do you want to support families and initiatives that protect the Amazon? For a limited time, now until December 31, any gift you give to our innovative conservation programs will be MATCHED. That’s right, for every tax-deductible dollar you contribute, $2 will go towards the conservation of the Amazon rainforest and headwaters. Click here to make a difference today. 

This holiday season, support the conservation of the Amazon rainforest while shopping for your friends and family! These forest-friendly companies have partnered with Amazon Conservation in support of our work to protect the Amazon. Any purchase from one of these small businesses includes a contribution to our innovative conservation programs that keep the Amazon thriving, so shopping from these partners is another way you can give your loved ones a unique gift that helps small businesses, nature, and people.

Already shopping on Amazon.com?

Shop through this link to support our organization with every purchase you make through Amazon Smile at no extra cost to you.

Makeup and Beauty

Wisdom of Qara skincare uses botanicals from the Amazon combined with science to create wellness products that will help you exist in balance with yourself, your community and Mother Earth. Their commitment to ethical skincare affects every decision they make about formulas, ingredients and packaging. View their skincare line here. (Currently only shipping to within the Europe Union). 

Fashion and Style

Rainy McDry Umbrellas are colorful, eye-catching, and beautiful. Each umbrella line addresses a topic they want to draw attention to. Their “Jungle Collection” benefits the Amazon with 5% of all purchases going towards its protection. (Currently only shipping to the European Union. Check back later for more information.)

Marc Skid underwear is made with the world and its people in mind, crafted using organic Pima cotton grown on family farms that strictly adhere to tried-and-true farming practices that exclude GMOs. Also, one recycled plastic water bottle is used in every waistband, meaning one less bottle in a landfill. Learn more.

Chrysanthoux women’s clothing encourages connection with sustainability which began by creating graphic and basic pieces that one can resonate with and learn about the processes that go into it. Learn more.

Fun and Cheer

Ready for some fun holiday fun? Reckless Conversations is the most hilarious party game of all time! Everyone’s responses to the real life statement cards will have you and your friends laughing for hours, if not for days afterwards!

This year’s Met Gala saw two incredible dresses that will help protect the world’s largest rainforest. 

Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen will soon auction the Met Gala gowns she designed for singer-songwriter Grimes and actress Gabrielle Union with Sotheby’s, and all proceeds raised will benefit the Amazon via our organization and Rainforest Trust.

A lifelong admirer of nature, it is no surprise that Iris Van Herpen draws inspiration from the natural world in a style known as “biomimicry”. This concept looks to implement nature’s intelligence into design and invites to look closely into natural transformations. She credits this interest to her upbringing in the “Land of the Rivers” in the Netherlands, where she became fascinated by water and its movement from a very young age. “The transformations within water are infinite,” Van Herpen explains. “I try to translate its dancing beauty and fluidity into garments. Sometimes literal, like a splash of water, other times I take inspiration from its metamorphosis from liquid stage into crystallized structure.”

Image Source: Irisvanherpen.com

One can recognize this natural inspiration behind the gowns she created for this year’s Met Gala. Grimes’ ‘Bene Gesserit‘ gown, inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune series, features cascading liquid silicone intertwined with hand-pleated gradient-dyed silk. The concept behind this dress was to have small waves flowing in different directions like a liquid labyrinth to enhance the feminine forms. “The patterns invite the viewer’s eyes to travel through the labyrinth, creating an intimacy in motion. There is a symbiosis between the movement of the body and the garment, an optical illusion is created with water-inspired repetition and pattern,” she comments.

Gabrielle Union’s ‘Aeternus’ gown is inspired by the Apollo crew looking at Earth from the moon’s perspective for the first time. A collection of 10,000 translucent white circles of different size gradients that took over 1,400 hours to create and assemble, Van Herpen sought to capture the dynamics between Earth and moon through this design. “By going away from Earth, there is a change in perspective and a feeling of interconnectedness,” she describes. “I experienced this on a smaller scale when skydiving–a strong connection to Earth where we lose details of what separates us. When we go further away, we come closer to each other.”

Gabrielle Union’s Met Gala Gown. Image Source: Getty / Theo Wargo

Iris Van Herpen’s fuse of 3D printing with craftsmanship in Couture is a flagship technique she’s incorporated into her work for more than a decade, identifying her as a pioneer of the use of modern technology in Haute Couture.”My approach to fashion is very intricate and layered to come very close to the beauty and complexity of designs within nature,” she remarks. “Zooming into the interconnected fabric of life has helped me to look beyond fashion’s borders.” 

Not only does Van Herpen have a passion and talent for designing from nature, she also has a strong sense of responsibility for protecting it. “We all have a role in sustainability and environmental awareness,” she explains. “Every person, every discipline. Especially fast fashion—as its impact on our world is devastating.” Van Herpen on the contrary creates ‘slow fashion’ and has been working with sustainable and upcycled fabrics, such as her work with Parley for the Oceans, to continuously explore new sustainable material solutions into the design process. Though she’s never been to the Amazon, she feels a strong connection to it. “The Amazon is home to more animal and plant species than anywhere else on Earth, this incredible biodiversity is key for our own health and wellbeing; we are all interconnected with it. I feel very strongly about helping in its conservation and I will continue to do so. It feels especially critical at the moment.” 

Though Iris Van Herpen notes that the conservation progress being made is impressive, there is still much work left to do, especially in fashion. She lamented the unsustainable elements at the core of the fast fashion industry based on overproduction, and cited that three out of five of all garments made end up in landfill within a year. In contrast, she commended indigenous peoples’ ways of working with natural products they create. “To move forward in time, we have to look back at where we come from,” she commented. “Sometimes we are too focused on the future that we’ve made up with imagination without really understanding our backgrounds. There is lots of knowledge to find again in our past.”

To learn more about Iris Van Herpen,please visit her website here. To follow in Iris’ footsteps and support conservation of the Amazon, see how you can make an impact here. More details about the auction to come. 

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Los Amigos Conservation Concession in mid-July our Los Amigos Biological Station hosted a Technological Knowledge Exchange Workshop to enhance protection systems for the 360,000-acre Los Amigos Conservation Concession. This exceptional event, powered by mutual learning between technology experts, conservationists, and forest park rangers, focused on the development and application of different surveillance strategies to protect the Los Amigos forests from forest crimes such as illegal deforestation, logging, and gold mining.

At this workshop, Los Amigos’s Forest Rangers, who regularly go on multi-day excursions deep into the Amazon to monitor the concession, met with the Satellite Monitoring team that operates from Peru’s capital city of Lima, to create a holistic strategy that more effectively organizes each of their communications. They also increased planning coordination, reporting and feedback tasks, as well as protection and monitoring actions.

The size of the Los Amigos protected area and its location with respect to the Madre de Dios and Pariamanu rivers make it extremely difficult to control and detect illegal deforestation, thus being on top of current technological advances is essential to improving its surveillance. “Technology allows us to enhance the work we do on the ground,” explained Lucio Villa, who is a Senior GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist at our sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA, during a presentation on the analysis of satellite monitoring images and information from the base in Lima. “In this way, thanks to the use of satellites, drones, and GPS, we can perform more efficient and effective work when carrying out activities related to monitoring and surveillance in the Los Amigos Concession.”

They also addressed topics such as reports, monitoring, findings, and analysis. At the end of the day, the satellite monitoring specialists shared their conclusions on the search for evidence and the generation of actionable information for patrols. The latest field activities included the evaluation of data collection (findings, coordinates, tracks and use of drones in the field), which generated new agreements that increased cooperation between both teams. All in all, this workshop was a fantastic day of co-learning, experiential and collective, that reaffirmed everyone’s commitment to protect the environment.

None of this would not be possible without the valuable support of our partners, to whom we express our sincere thanks: Re:Wild, ICFC, Erol Foundation, Amazon Rainforest Conservancy – ARC, and Andes Amazon Fund.