For the Kogui people, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia is a sacred territory – the spiritual and ecological heart of their existence. With the support of IGAC and ACT, the Kogui recently took part in a native place names project, mapping and documenting 36 sacred sites and 3 community spaces.
These are not just geographic markers on a map, but also linguistic expressions of ancestral knowledge that continue to guide the Kogui worldview. You can take a journey through each location, with stunning photos and stories, on the IGAC website.
Link in bio.
📸Luis Bernardo Cano
🌎 From the Amazon to the sea, Indigenous peoples protect life where it begins — and where it flows.
They don’t separate the forest from the ocean, the land from the stories, or nature from culture. Everything is connected.
That’s why we follow their lead — a path that has taken us from North to South, from Mexico to the Andes, from Colombia to Brasil, from the Guiana Shield to the Amazon.
Because protecting the Earth means listening to those who have defended it for generations.
🌳 On this day — and every day — we honor and recognize Indigenous Peoples.
#IndigenousPeoplesDay
🌎 Desde la Amazonía hasta el mar, los pueblos indígenas protegen la vida donde nace — y por donde fluye.
No separan el bosque del océano, la tierra de las historias, ni la naturaleza de la cultura. Todo está conectado.
Por eso caminamos a su lado y ese camino nos ha llevado del norte al sur: de México a los Andes, de Colombia a Brasil, del Escudo Guyanés al corazón de la Amazonía.
Porque cuidar la Tierra empieza por escuchar a quienes la han protegido por generaciones.
🌳 Hoy, y todos los días, honramos y reconocemos a los Pueblos Indígenas.
#DíaDeLosPueblosIndígenas
🌎 Da Amazônia ao mar, os povos indígenas protegem a vida onde ela nasce — e por onde ela flui.
Eles não separam a floresta do oceano, a terra das histórias, nem a natureza da cultura. Tudo está conectado.
É por isso que seguimos seus passos. Esse caminho nos levou do Norte ao Sul: do México aos Andes, da Colômbia ao Brasil, do Escudo das Guianas ao coração da Amazônia.
Porque proteger a Terra começa ouvindo quem sempre a defendeu.
🌳 Hoje, e todos os dias, reconhecemos e honramos os Povos Indígenas.
#DiadosPovosIndígenas
Even without direct contact, outside pressures continue to reach the forests of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation.
Mining, logging, roads, oil extraction, and illegal economies threaten the territories that sustain their lives, mobility, and autonomy.
Often, Indigenous monitoring networks are the first to recognize these changes — protecting their lands through patrols, shared knowledge, and constant observation.
Respecting isolation means protecting territory and no contact is essential to survival.
➡️ Explore more in our StoryMap A Fight for Survival - Link in bio.
The hands that shape the world.
In the Aguarico River basin in Ecuador, Siekopai women transform clay into memory. Each vessel holds a way of understanding the land, of relating to the forest, the river, and the cycles that sustain life.
This video is just a glimpse of everything the Siekoya Remolino community has to share. Very soon, the Amazon Food Atlas will unveil its complete map of Amazonian knowledge. Stay tuned for what’s coming! 🌎
This is a project designed and developed by the Amazon Conservation Team and is an initiative of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL), which is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the World Bank.
#Amazon #AmazonSustainableLandscapes #AmazonFoodAtlas #FoodsThatConnect
The Amazon is one of the most monitored ecosystems on Earth. And yet illegal miners operate freely inside protected reserves, criminal networks control entire river systems, and species disappear from forests that look completely intact from above.
Part 4 of Rewilding Amazonia follows a satellite analyst tracking illegal mining barges from orbit, a Venezuelan investigator documenting destruction inside one of the most dangerous corners of the hemisphere, and an entomologist who discovered that praying mantises are a reliable bioindicators of rainforest health.
Three tools. One mission: make the invisible visible.
Episode 4 is out now—link in bio.
#Rewildology #AmazonRainforest #IllegalMining #Conservation #EnvironmentalJournalism
“What’s that bird called?” 🐦
Since 2018, children and youth in Colombia have explored their territory through birdwatching — reconnecting with nature, culture, and conservation.
Together, they’ve identified more than 250 bird species and created birding routes across the Amazon.
On World Migratory Bird Day, we celebrate the young people who are transforming curiosity into conservation, and helping protect the Amazon through the world of birds.
#birdwatching #conservation
This is Santa María, in the heart of the Bolivian Amazon.
A community descended from the Tacana people, shaped during the rubber era, when bosses and barracks controlled life and food.
Today, their struggle is different: land, autonomy, and a future that is being cultivated right here.
In Santa María, food is medicine.
Açaí gives strength, majo heals, and chila nourishes the youngest.
The forest is their pharmacy, and also their pantry.
But this is also a territory under tension.
The Brazil nut economy sustains them, but also indebts them.
Fires and deforestation threaten the forest that feeds them.
And laws sometimes penalize small farmers while agribusiness moves forward.
Even so, here they persist.
They organize. They reclaim knowledge: they ask permission from the forest, speak with plants, and honor the guardians of the territory.
Because in Santa María, they understand something essential:
life is sustained through respect.
That is the message.
That is the future they defend.
This work is an initiative of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL), funded by the GEF and led by the World Bank.
#Amazon #AmazonSustainableLandscapes #AmazonFoodAtlas #FoodsThatConnect
A Fight for Survival, ganador del StoryMaps Competition 2025, lleva la Amazonía y las historias de quienes la habitan a una conversación global.
Los datos permiten poner contexto sobre el territorio, reconocer a quienes lo habitan y visibilizar la relación que estas comunidades mantienen con la Amazonía y sus ecosistemas.
En Comunidad Esri creemos en el poder de la información geoespacial para abrir conversaciones y conectar los datos con decisiones más conscientes.
#ComunidadEsri #SIG #Geoespacial #AFightforSurvival
Meet Ati Villafañe,
One of seven Indigenous students from Colombia who are part of a scholarship program supported by ACT and the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota.
For the scholarship students, the goal is not to leave their territory behind: instead, they are encouraged to bring it with them and ultimately use the skills they gain at university and through the program in service of the specific needs of their community.
➡️Read our latest blog featuring Ati’s story.
Mapping memory, language, and territory 🗺️
Waiwai community members are reviewing and refining their biocultural maps, adding place names, oral histories, rivers, and mountains across the Kanashen landscape.
Created in their own language, these maps reflect deep connections to territory and ensure that knowledge and history remain in the hands of the community.
More updates coming soon—stay tuned.
📷 Bruce Hoffman
Knowledge rooted in the forest 🌿
Waiwai elders and youth are coming together around a short, community-designed plant walk, sharing knowledge of medicinal and useful plants across generations. Marked stations create space for learning, storytelling, and connection to the forest.
The community is also developing its own medicinal plant book in the Waiwai language, created for and safeguarded by the community.
More to come from the field—stay tuned.
