In Amazonia, indigenous communities in Ecuador and Peru join forces to restore the Sacred Headwaters
The Amazon rainforest and the ancestral knowledge it contains are in danger of disappearing as the forest is exploited for its natural resources and converted to intensive agriculture. Home to 1,5 million of indigenous people who depend directly on its ecosystem services for their livelihoods, Amazonia also contains 10% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and 20% of the world's freshwater reserves. Located between two affluents of the Amazon, on either side of the border between Ecuador and Peru, the Sacred Headwaters region, the richest reservoir of biodiversity in Amazonia, is particularly affected by oil extraction and the deforestation that precedes it. During a visit to the Reforest'Action offices, Domingo Peas Nampichkai, leader of the Achuar Amazonian people, and Atossa Soltani, director of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, discussed the urgent need to preserve this region, which is essential to the ecosystemic balance of the Amazon rainforest, and the ambition of the project led by an alliance of indigenous organisations and to which Reforest'Action is contributing.
