A Message From Our Executive Director

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Summertime is well underway, and this year, it has brought a sobering reminder of the accelerating climate crisis. In June, Europe saw record high temperatures, with parts of France reaching 112°F, while a massive heat dome and smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed much of the U.S. in July. And relief doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center, a ‘super’ El Niño event is likely brewing for this year, meaning extended heat and more frequent extreme weather events worldwide.

In the Amazon, this translates to drier forests and conditions ripe for larger, more frequent fires. In response, Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) and the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) brought Indigenous Peruvian delegates to Brazil in May to exchange knowledge on Indigenous fire management ahead of the dry season.

These mounting climate threats make it more important than ever to keep rainforests standing, as vital carbon sinks and natural cooling systems. That starts with securing Indigenous land tenure. A new report co-authored by the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) and RFUS spotlights the progress of the SI-TIERRA land rights initiative in Loreto, Peru, and its potential to scale regionally.

Meanwhile, our 2025 Annual Impact Report details our continued progress in advancing land rights, expanding territorial monitoring, and building Indigenous organizational capacity across the Amazon and Central America—work made possible by supporters like you.

Looking ahead, RFUS remains committed to ensuring that Indigenous peoples and communities continue to be recognized for their leadership in shaping climate outcomes. Protecting the Amazon starts with backing its most effective defenders.

Thank you for standing with Indigenous peoples,

Program Highlights

New Report: Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights in Record Time

“For Indigenous peoples, land is not a commodity. It is the foundation of our identity, our culture, and our lives,” said Jorge Pérez Rubio, president of AIDESEP in Peru. “Securing our territorial rights is essential to protecting our peoples and the forests we defend.”

Despite the fact that secure territories are shown to have lower deforestation, greater carbon storage, and richer biodiversity, an estimated 49.4 million acres of Indigenous lands across the Peruvian Amazon—an area larger than Washington State—remain without secure land tenure.

In Securing the Amazon: Indigenous Land Tenure and Forest Protection in Peru, RFUS and AIDESEP present findings on SI-TIERRA, an Indigenous-led land titling model. Drawing on historical records, research, and interviews, the report identifies where past efforts stalled and how coordinated, field-based work in collaboration with local government agencies can close those gaps.

Since 2023, SI-TIERRA has advanced land tenure for over 40 communities across nearly 191,000 acres, cutting processing time from years to just 8–18 months. “Indigenous leadership and sustained coordination can strengthen land tenure processes on the ground,” said RFUS Executive Director Suzanne Pelletier. Read more.

Indigenous Organizations Meet in Brazil to Strengthen Climate Resilience Across the Amazon

As climate change and deforestation make fires burn hotter, spread farther, and grow harder to control, Indigenous communities across the Amazon are adapting long-standing land management practices to increase fire resilience.

Held May 11-16 and organized by the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) and RFUS, with support from the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA), the Climate Adaptation and Resilience Exchange brought Indigenous representatives from Peru to northern Brazil, where communities have long used fire to replenish soils, repel pests, and maintain ecosystems. There, visiting leaders met with local counterparts to learn practical approaches to territorial fire management and climate resilience.

Participants also heard from federal and Indigenous community fire brigades, whose work—through environmental education, culturally-grounded prevention methods, and communal nursery planting—focuses on preventing fires, not just responding to them.

“We can’t just wait for crises to happen…we have to prepare,” said Sineia Wapichana, coordinator of CIR’s Territorial and Environmental Management and Climate Change Department, stressing the need for Indigenous-led adaptation plans rather than ones imposed from outside. By supporting cross-border knowledge exchanges, RFUS helps strengthen Indigenous-led governance and regional climate resilience efforts. Read More.

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Impact Insights

2025 Annual Impact Report: A Year of Progress for Indigenous-Led Forest Protection

In 2025, RFUS continued to support Indigenous peoples across the Amazon and Central America as they protected their lands, defended their rights, and confronted an increasingly volatile climate. Here are some of the highlights:

Land Rights
Over the past year, RFUS has supported partners to strengthen land tenure security across more than 2 million acres of rainforest. With support from Rainforest Trust, RFUS and AIDESEP also launched a new project to title at least 550,000 acres in the Chambira-Marañón region for 41 Urarina communities. In Guyana’s North Pakaraimas, communities are working together to advance a “One Block” vision to protect more than 2.7 million acres of ancestral territory as a unified landscape.

Rainforest Protection
Through the Rainforest Alert monitoring program, RFUS trained and financed over 400 community-based forest patrollers safeguarding 19.6 million acres across Brazil, Peru, Guyana, and Panama—altogether an area larger than Ireland. In Peru, monitoring coverage more than doubled. RFUS also helped communities turn monitoring data into action by supporting formal environmental complaints with drone mapping and satellite imagery. In Roraima, Brazil, Indigenous fire brigades—including the all-women Pataxibas brigade—used traditional knowledge to prevent and respond to increasingly severe fires.

Strengthening Indigenous Organizations
In 2025, RFUS unlocked more than $10.5 million in funding and worked with 22 Indigenous organizations to build long-term governance, administrative, and fundraising capacity. In reflecting on our long-term impact, decade-long partnerships with the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC), in Guyana, showed the power of sustained investment: APA grew from 5 to 15 staff and its budget grew more than tenfold, while SRDC evolved from a small grassroots group into a $1.1 million institution—both now managing major grants directly.

On the global stage, RFUS worked alongside the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities to help shape the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), successfully advocating for at least 20% of its funding to reach Indigenous peoples and local communities and for their meaningful representation in its governance.

Looking ahead, RFUS plans to advance land rights across 14 million acres, strengthen monitoring across 91 million acres of rainforest, and support 67 Indigenous and community-led organizations over the next five years.

Read the full report.