Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving South American rainforests. ACT occupies a unique niche among other environmental organizations working in the tropics: it works hand-in-hand with local indigenous communities to devise and implement its conservation strategies. Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and conservationist Liliana Madrigal founded ACT in 1996 to work with indigenous groups in tropical America to protect biodiversity and strengthen indigenous culture and health. Since its founding, ACT has partnered with more than 30 groups throughout South America on numerous initiatives. ACT believes that indigenous peoples are the best stewards of the rainforest because they have a physical, medical, and spiritual tie to these lands. ACT conducts the vast majority of its biocultural conservation projects within the tropical forests of northern Amazonia. In each case, ACT has designed in-country conservation activities to address the most urgent needs of partners, and have adapted these activities to operate most effectively within each context.
The Amazon forests -- the lungs of the world -- are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
ACT works with indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin to develop their capacity to protect their rainforest home.
Tribal associations supported by ACT map and manage key territories and promote creation of protected areas.
Through enhanced governance, improved land-use and rights, and strengthened livelihoods, indigenous people and local communities are empowered to remain on their territories and use technologies, such as GPS units and satellite imagery, to protect and advocate for their forests while strengthening and preserving traditional culture.
Build Capacity, Move OnACT builds the capacity of local indigenous and community associations to take ownership over programs and outreach, which allows the organization to focus resources on moving into new areas.
President, Amazon Conservation Team
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, 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.
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