The current development model has caused severe social and environmental issues, making it urgent to seek change. From the Amazon, we aim to inspire and promote a new way of envisioning the future, rooted in harmony with nature.
After three and a half years of intense research and collaboration, our alliance has brought the Bioregional Plan to life—a roadmap that outlines pathways toward a just transition for our territory and the planet. This plan proposes nine transformative routes, designed through an Indigenous lens, to protect the Amazon and drive local, national, and global transformation.
Key proposals include ecological education and intercultural health, fostering a renewed relationship between people and nature. Additionally, the plan prioritizes the promotion of forest-based economies, the consolidation of territorial governance, and strategies for forest conservation and restoration. The Bioregional Plan not only addresses the energy transition and adequate connectivity for communities, but also advocates for measures such as an oil moratorium, aiming to redefine our development model by prioritizing the protection of nature and the rights of Indigenous peoples.
Strengthening the cultural practices and wisdom of Indigenous peoples as pillars for autonomous management and collective well-being
Guaranteeing that all actions and policies implemented contribute to the protection and restoration of Amazonian ecosystems.
Advancing environmentally respectful economic models that equitably benefit communities
Our proposal promotes alternatives to extractivism, and emphasizes the importance of planning in harmony with nature, grounded in a rights-based approach and respect for Indigenous peoples.
Through a collaborative and holistic approach, we work on local solutions that empower communities and restore ecosystems through a regenerative economy.
There are viable alternatives that do not pollute forests or rivers and that value territories as vital spaces for life.
Direct Support through Our Bioregional Grants Fund
Strengthening Institutional Capacity, Leadership, and Indigenous Education
Demanding Systemic Solutions and Direct Funding
Territorial Defense
Legal Recognition of Indigenous Territories
Reforestation, Restoration, and Food Forests
Monitoring, Learning, and Territory-Centered Evaluation
This process involves land-use changes, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and significant socio-environmental impacts, including internal and territorial conflicts due to the presence of new actors associated with extractive projects.
Oil activities also directly threaten the health of communities through the release of toxins into the air via gas flaring and the contamination of rivers and soils caused by frequent spills. These damages not only compromise the integrity of the ecosystem but also endanger the lives and livelihoods of Indigenous peoples who depend on these territories.
Additionally, oil extraction is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, disrupting climate patterns such as rainfall and droughts. According to the Amazon Scientific Panel, these disruptions push the region closer to a critical tipping point, where the rainforest could transition into savanna-like landscapes. Such a shift would release vast amounts of stored carbon, further exacerbating climate change and causing irreversible consequences for global climate stability.
Mineral extraction leads to deforestation, contamination of rivers with heavy metals, and biodiversity loss, affecting both the health of ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Notably, the impacts of mining are often transboundary, affecting not only extraction sites but also downstream communities.
La minera, además, implica la apertura de carreteras y la creación de asentamientos humanos que alteran las dinámicas sociales y culturales de los pueblos indígenas, generando conflictos internos y territoriales que exacerban las tensiones en la región, entre otras a través de la criminalización de líderes indígenas por la protección de sus territorios y medios de vida.
Por otra parte, en la biorregión de las Cuencas Sagradas existe un incremento de la minería ilegal, lo que provoca enfrentamientos y contextos de alta hostilidad y violencia, amenazando la calidad de vida y la estabilidad de las comunidades. En particular, en Perú, la minería ilegal se concentra en regiones como Cajamarca, Amazonas y Loreto, donde afecta directamente a las Naciones indígenas Ashuar, Wampis y Awajún, además de comprometer las fuentes de agua en una zona clave por su alta recarga hídrica.
This process has both local and global impacts: it disrupts livelihoods, reduces biodiversity, alters water cycles, and significantly contributes to climate change. Moreover, it fosters illegal practices, accelerates environmental degradation, and intensifies the region’s social and ecological crises.
Unregulated trade in tropical products like palm oil, sugarcane, and bananas—fueled by globalization—worsens the situation. This model promotes the expansion of monocultures and the extraction of high-value timber, degrading ecosystems, triggering territorial conflicts, displacing communities, and reducing the resilience of Indigenous peoples.
A study conducted by RAISG between 2001 and 2020 reveals a significant increase in deforestation across the Amazon basin. In 2020 alone, deforestation rose by over 34% compared to the previous year. The analysis highlighted that 14% of the total forest loss—equivalent to 209,473 square miles—occurred within protected natural areas and Indigenous territories throughout the Amazon basin.
According to the latest multidimensional poverty study by INEI in Peru, over 596,000 people fell into extreme poverty between 2022 and 2023, primarily in rural areas. Similarly, Ecuador's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) reported in June 2023 that extreme poverty in rural areas reached 22.6%, nearly four times higher than in the country’s urban zones.
DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
The Amazonian student population faces significant challenges in accessing and achieving higher education. Inadequate connectivity and infrastructure in their territories, the remoteness of educational institutions, and socioeconomic difficulties severely impact the schooling rates of Amazonian youth.
According to the Socioeconomic Atlas of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters and Peru’s 2017 national census, 81.2% of Amazonian women—representing half of the Indigenous population—do not access higher education. Additionally, 64% do not complete secondary education, and less than half finish basic schooling.
In Ecuador, efforts to make higher education more accessible through virtual programs showed progress in 2022, with a gross enrollment rate increase to 40.88%. According to a study published in Imaginario Social, this trend continued in 2024, reporting a further rise in student enrollment.
Con base en el Atlas Socioeconómico de las Cuencas Sagradas, cerca del 56% de la población de la biorregión no tiene acceso a servicios de red pública de agua potable, y el 35% obtiene este recurso de los ríos u otras fuentes de agua. Esta carencia de fuentes de agua seguras impactan la calidad de vida de la población amazónica que utilizan el río, muchas veces contaminado, como única fuente hídrica.
As a result, health issues such as childhood anemia, acute diarrheal diseases, zoonotic parasitic infections, acute respiratory infections, and tropical illnesses are prevalent. These conditions are leading causes of mortality among children under the age of five.
Indigenous women in the Amazon Basin face structural discrimination linked to both their gender and ethnic origin. In terms of statistics, only 12% of Amazonian women are able to access decent employment, and they earn, on average, 18% less than men. Furthermore, 81% of them work in inadequate conditions, exposing them to gender-based violence, limiting the exercise of their fundamental rights, and restricting their access to justice and education.
Es un joven soñador que camina junto a los rukus y ayllus desde la base comunitaria. Su visión es fortalecer a las nacionalidades indígenas tanto dentro como fuera de sus territorios. Uno de sus sueños era convertirse en atleta; también tenía interés en las matemáticas y la antropología. Dejó su territorio para completar sus estudios superiores en la Universidad San Francisco de Quito y luego regresó a su comunidad para continuar trabajando por los pueblos y nacionalidades indígenas. Su recorrido organizativo comenzó en el cantón Arajuno, donde fue elegido presidente de la organización PAKKIRU. La misión de Luis es salvaguardar la selva para una mejor vida, y su visión es trabajar por el bienestar de las comunidades, manteniéndose fiel a sus ideales
Descendiente de las comunidades Chapra, Wampís y Achuar, es presidenta del Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Chapra (GTANCH) en Perú. Con 34 años, es socióloga por la Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar y experta en Derechos Humanos, Poblaciones Indígenas y Cooperación Internacional por la Universidad Carlos III de España. Como una de las primeras mujeres líderes indígenas en la Amazonía peruana, también estudia Derecho y Ciencias Políticas en la Universidad Tecnológica del Perú. Es miembro de la junta directiva de la Alianza Cuencas Sagradas Amazónicas, donde trabaja en la defensa contra los impactos ambientales y de salud de la extracción petrolera, oponiéndose al proyecto en el lote petrolero 64.
Líder indígena Murui. Actualmente, es el Presidente de la Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP), la organización indígena nacional de la Amazonía peruana. Previamente a ello, completó su mandato como presidente de la Organización Regional de los Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente (ORPIO), que representa a 50,000 personas de 450 comunidades y 12 pueblos indígenas de la Amazonía peruana.
Líder de la Nación Wampis con una larga trayectoria en la defensa de los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas de Perú. Actualmente, es el coordinador territorial de la Alianza Cuencas Sagradas Amazónicas en Perú. Posee el título de «Experto en Pueblos Indígenas, Derechos Humanos, Gobernanza y Cooperación Internacional» otorgado por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Es el ex Presidente del Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampis y también es el Presidente de la Red Latinoamericana de Territorios y Áreas Conservadas por Pueblos Indígenas y Comunidades (TICCA)
Líder Achuar de Ecuador, tiene 30 años de trayectoria en el movimiento indígena. Es Presidente de la Alianza Cuencas Sagradas Amazónicas y miembro de la CONFENIAE. Cofundó la Escuela Viva de la Amazonía (EVA) en 2023 y la Nación Achuar del Ecuador (NAE), donde fue director de comunicación. También es co-fundador de la comunidad Achuar de Sharamentsa y su proyecto de turismo comunitario, además de ser cofundador de la organización binacional Achuar COBNAEP, que une a Ecuador y Perú.
