A Year of Resilience, Progress, and Hope for Rainforests and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
As 2024 comes to a close, there’s much to reflect on. It was a year of immense challenges. Yet despite these challenges, we made significant achievements in protecting rainforests and supporting our Indigenous partners across the Amazon and Central America in their efforts to defend their ancestral territories—making 2024 a year defined by resilience, hope, […]
The Future of Giving: How Crypto and AI Are Supporting Rainforest Protection
One of the more recent examples of technological potential is through S.A.N (Sentient Advocate of Nature), an AI creation designed to act as the “voice of the Earth.”
COP16 & COP29: Global Promises Must Turn Into Urgent Action
Never before has the need for global unity in addressing the climate crisis been more urgent. Predictions have been made with near certainty that 2024 will be the warmest year on record. [1] This year, the Amazon rainforest experienced its worst drought in recent history, accompanied by a record number of fires that blazed across […]
The B’atz Project: Reflecting on Three Years of Impact in Mexico and Central America
Funded by a $2 million grant from US Agency for International Development (USAID), the B’atz project has worked on multiple fronts over the past three years to enhance the capacity of Indigenous and local community organizations throughout Mexico and Central America.
Protecting Biodiversity Starts with Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights: A Call to Action at COP16
COP16, the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, is a critical moment for countries to turn biodiversity commitments into action.
Indigenous Women Forge Strategic Alliances to Defend Their Territories and Lives
Earlier this month, around 70 participants, including 50 Indigenous women leaders from across the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, gathered in Pucallpa, Peru, for “Indigenous Women: Care and Resistance,” a two-day TechCamp aimed at fostering collaboration and addressing the pressing threats to their territories, rights, and communities.
A Rainforest Without Rain: Communities in the Amazon Grapple with the Impacts of Extreme Drought and FiresÂ
This drought is the worst in four decades and is contributing to an alarming number of fires this year raging across multiple regions throughout the Amazon and posing a threat to Indigenous and local communities and some of the world’s most vital ecosystems.
IMAGE CREDIT: Federico Gutierrez Panduro/Rainforest Foundation US
Uniting for Wildlife: Highlights from a ‘TechCamp’ Workshop in the Peruvian AmazonÂ
The city of Iquitos, Peru, hosted an event dedicated to the protection of Amazonian wildlife. Organized by Rainforest Foundation US, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), and the Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), and with financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the World Resources Institute (WRI), the event brought together a diverse group of 55 participants.
The Ancestral Forest: How Indigenous Peoples Transformed the Amazon into a Vast Garden
For centuries, many people in the Western world believed the Amazon to be an unpopulated and untouched forest. This has never been entirely true. The Amazon has been managed by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, explore how—through the creation of fertile soils and selecting and cultivating various plant and tree species over millennia—Indigenous peoples have transformed the Amazon rainforest into the most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth.
Cinema on the River: A Floating Film Festival in the Heart of the Peruvian Amazon
The Muyuna Floating Film Festival showcased a unique floating screen, bringing films directly to riverside communities in the Peruvian Amazon. During the festival, Rainforest Foundation US supported an Indigenous Cinema Workshop, emphasizing the urgent need to understand these issues from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
