Amazon Conservation Association

Protect wild places - the organization protects critical ecosystems and biodiversity in peru and bolivia by helping create and manage protected areas; ensuring landscape connectivity essential for species survival and climate adaptation; and directly addressing threats to local habitats. The organization further helps protect the entire Amazon basin by employing the satellite, drone, and radar technologies to identify, analyze, and report the most urgent cases of deforestation and fires across all nine amazonian countries in real-time. Examples of this work include supporting the creation of over 24 Conservation areas protecting 9.3 million acres of irreplaceable ecosystems across peru and bolivia; planting hundreds of thousands of trees to restore damaged habitats; and supporting local communities, indigenous groups, and governments to develop management plans that ensure sustainable resource use and Conservation efforts in protected areas and indigenous territories in the long-run.

Empower people - the organization empowers local people by building a forest-based economy that can fuel sustainable development and climate resilience to the region; combatting nature crimes to stop illegal deforestation and improve the long-term protection of natural resources; and building the next generation of conservationists. Examples of this work include providing indigenous groups and government authorities with real-time data on illegal deforestation so they can take action before the destruction gets to a point of no return; training prosecutors and judges to understand and use satellite and drone technologies in the prosecution of environmental crimes; supporting local producer groups in the production, transformation, marketing, and sale of forest goods like acai berries and brazil nuts as an alternative to destructive livelihoods like gold mining; and providing training for local people on a wide variety of conservation-related topics, such as forest fire prevention, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, species protection, and more.

Put science and technology to work - the organization develops innovative Conservation solutions through science and technology by employing their network of biological research stations in peru and bolivia as living laboratories where they carry out and host robust scientific research; developing and testing cutting-edge technologies to be used to advance understanding and protection of the Amazon; and facilitating learning and education of the next generation of scientists and conservationists. Furthermore, the organization's real-time monitoring program integrates the latest advances in satellite-based technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to provide a regional perspective of the challenges and opportunities for the entire Amazon, such as through analyses on the impact of roads, carbon, and fires. Examples of this work include monitoring biodiversity health with the tropic's largest camera trap grid; developing and managing the amazonian fruits and climate change observatory to provide local producers and decision makers in bolivia data on sustainable production; hosting scientists and students from around the world to conduct research on the impacts of climate change at four premier biological stations; and developing a fire monitoring app that can be used by the public and media to track fires happening in any amazonian nation in real-time.