Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) was founded in the mid-1990s and partners with indigenous and other local communities of the Amazon basin to protect tropical forests and strengthen traditional culture. ACT believes that the survival of the forest depends on the fate of its guardians and protects both.
In the remote Colombian Amazon, hospital services can be days away by boat. Indigenous communities rely on local health promoters and their clinics for primary care, disease prevention, and early intervention. The Amazon Conservation Team is expanding and strengthening these vital resources.
With support from the Tarbaca Indigo Foundation in 2022, 41 health promoters are training in accelerated skillbuilding courses with expert doctors from the WHO-recognized University of Antioquia. Additionally, 45 promoters are being equipped with kits of essential tools and medicines. In a parallel effort, ACT is refurbishing and supplying eight health posts where promoters provide care.
As a result, over 8,000 people across 38,000 km2 of rainforest will have access to well-resourced health posts and highly capable local health promoters who can readily provide qualified care. This quality healthcare not only enhances community well-being, but also supports indigenous permanence in their territories.
In partnership with indigenous communities across the Amazon basin, the Amazon Conservation Team has launched a Covid-19 response program to curtail the immediate impact of the pandemic and build long-term resilience. Their three-pronged approach entails strengthening local public health capacities, facilitating epidemiological strategies, and promoting sustainable livelihoods alongside food security and other essential needs. Each approach integrates respecting cultural traditions, maintaining community connections to their forest territories, and improving quality of life.
As part of this expansive effort, the Tarbaca Indigo Foundation is supporting the full renovation, equipment, and staff capacity building of the only community health center along a 500-kilometer stretch of the Caquetá River in the Colombian Amazon. Serving five villages of the last Bora and Miraña indigenous peoples, this post fills a critical gap and complements traditional medicine with western healthcare. Here a trained community member known as a health promotor provides primary care, early treatment and intervention, and disease prevention services. The health promotor also actively dialogues with traditional healers and midwives who are foundational to the Bora and Miraña culture.
Image: Community members' territorial management activities
Tarbaca Indigo Foundation is supporting the Amazon Conservation Team's partnership with the Inga peoples of the Yunguillo Indigenous Reserve in the highly biodiverse Andes-Amazon transition region of Colombia. The project strengthens internal governance and environmental management of the reserve, reforestation and restoration of degraded areas, and the advancement of sustainable livelihood options. All of these components converge to a larger goal - fostering an enduring conservation ethic from within.
Image: Yunguillo Reserve
