Founded | 1996 |
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Type | Non-governmental organization |
Focus | Environmentalism, Indigenous rights |
Location | |
Area served | Amazon Rainforest, Tropical Andes |
Key people | Mark Plotkin, Liliana Madrigal |
Revenue | US$4,927,682 (2014) |
Website | www |
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The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with indigenous people of tropical South America in conserving the biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest, as well as the culture and land of its indigenous people. ACT was formed in 1996 by ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal. The organization is primarily active in the northwest, northeast, and southern regions of the Amazon.
ACT promotes indigenous rights to land tenure and management, as well as self-determination in governance and tradition for local communities of Amazonia. Since their founding, the organization has worked with over 50 indigenous groups. In their work, ACT pioneered a 'biocultural conservation model' which necessitates direct collaboration and consent with forest-dwelling communities. In addition to safeguarding the Amazon rainforest and protecting the biodiversity of the region, ACT works to protect indigenous medicinal traditions and related intellectual property rights of communities in South America. While their headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia, there are three field offices: ACT-Brazil, ACT-Colombia, and ACT-Suriname.[1][2][3][4][5][6]