Amazon Conservation Team

Mark Plotkin and Liliana Madrigal, a husband and wife team, have spent much of their lives preserving the Amazon rainforest and the knowledge and culture of its indigenous inhabitants. Liliana and Mark recognized that the loss of the forest and the destruction of tribal culture were inextricably linked and that one could not thrive without the other. Mark has led the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) as President and guided its vision since its inception. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America. Mark, became “hooked on plants, hooked on Indians and hooked on the Amazon” through his mentor, the Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. As Mark worked to learn about the rainforest and preserve the knowledge of the elderly shamans, he realized that both were disappearing and that the tribes’ cultural destruction was inextricably linked to the destruction of the rainforest. Liliana is a conservationist and passionate crusader for indigenous rights. She oversees all ACT programmatic activities, traveling frequently to South America to meet directly and work with ACT's indigenous partners in the Amazon and serves as chief liaison to shamans and tribal leaders of the northwest Amazon. She learned from her conservation mentors the value of an expansive vision and a “feet in the mud” attitude when confronting challenges. She used this lesson in her work to co-found the national park system of Costa Rica and to ensure that traditional tribal knowledge and land management skills are passed on to younger generations. Together, Mark and Liliana formed ACT in 1996 to preserve the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and develop their capacity to provide enduring protection of their rainforest home.