Read about our work as it’s appeared in the press, as well as news from our partners on the ground through our stories, newsletters, multimedia, and reports. Members of the press can visit media resources to join our press list.
New study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that indigenous communities reduced deforestation in their territories by 52 percent using RFUS’s monitoring program.
A new peer-reviewed study finds that indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon equipped with satellite-based deforestation data and smartphones can be a powerful force in the battle against deforestation.
Reuters highlights the study backing RFUS’s Rainforest Alert methodology, wherein indigenous communities use smartphones to map and send alerts of deforestation.
The Yanomami, an indigenous people in the northern Amazon rainforest, were attacked by illegal gold miners several times in recent weeks, leaving several people wounded and two young children dead. With tens of thousands of miners still illegally occupying their land, the threat of continued violence remains.
On the heels of a recent survey of indigenous communities in Peru revealing widespread unfamiliarity with COVID-19 and hesitancy about the vaccine, RFUS has teamed up with indigenous partner organizations on a multilingual COVID-19 awareness campaign.
An article in Forbes describes the work of indigenous leader Betty Rubio Padilla, who uses satellite technology and deforestation alerts in order to quickly detect and respond to illegal incursions.
In this newsletter you will read
how your support is having a direct impact on the ground with our partners in Panama, Guyana, Peru, and Brazil.
Gold mining brings prospectors, disease, and destruction to indigenous lands in Brazil. But indigenous communities are fighting back.
RFUS’s Mapping Coordinator, Carlos Doviaza, was featured in an NPR article that describes how his maps are helping indigenous communities in Panama assert their land rights and track COVID-19.
RFUS supported the Amerindian Peoples Association to conduct a nation-wide assessment of indigenous lands in Guyana. The report exposes inconsistencies and injustices in the land recognition process.
Tomorrow, APA will release its findings of a nearly decade-long assessment of indigenous land rights in Guyana. The organization will also launch a new geographic database to map Guyana’s indigenous territories.
Mongabay writes about Panama’s Naso people, a Rainforest Foundation US partner, in their achievement of a protected indigenous territory following decades of effort.
Didier Devers
Chief of Party – USAID Guatemala
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Didier has been coordinating the USAID-funded B’atz project since joining Rainforest Foundation US in April 2022. He holds a Master’s in Applied Anthropology and a Bachelor’s in Geography. Before joining the organization, Didier worked for 12 years in Central and South America on issues of transparency, legality, governance, and managing stakeholders’ processes in the environmental sector. Prior to that he worked on similar issues in Central Africa. He speaks French, Spanish, and English, and is based in Guatemala.
