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Dear ASL Friends,
We continue celebrating our 10-year anniversary with renewed energy and a deep sense of purpose. This quarter, we’ve released several key updates, including the reports from the 7th ASL Annual Conference and the Sustainable Finance Workshop's regional gathering in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our regional team has participated in numerous events and our national projects across the region remain active and committed, driving forward innovative efforts to protect the Amazon and support local communities.
Just last week the Ecuador government announced the largest-of-its-kind connectivity corridor in Ecuador's Amazon that will link protected forests with Indigenous territories and serve as a vital migration pathway. This recognition marks an important milestone supported by the ASL’s Amazonian Connectivity Corridors project; you can read more below. This edition also features a timely and thought-provoking article led by representatives from Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, highlighting a decade of collaborative, strategic action to integrate environmental criteria into road planning and showing that sustainable development is possible when guided by long-term cross-sectoral vision.
In our Echoes from the Amazon section we spotlight Freddy Yainape, a Kurripako Indigenous leader from Guainia, Colombia. Drawing on both technical training in ecotourism and ancestral wisdom, he is leading efforts to strengthen territorial governance and monitoring systems across Indigenous and rural communities, reminding us that conservation and cultural identity are deeply intertwined.
As always, we welcome your insights and contributions to enrich our community and encourage you to contact us via email or through our website.
Warm regards,
The ASL Regional Team
| | Stories from the ASL regional program | | Our latest reports are out from the ASL's 7th Annual Conference & the Sustainable Finance Solutions for Nature Conservation Workshop | | The ASL’s 7th Annual Conference brought together 100 participants in Georgetown, Guyana, in March to reflect on a decade of impact in Amazon conservation and sustainable development as the ASL celebrated its 10th anniversary since GEF approval. The conference also provides an opportunity to exchange information, strengthen capacities, and plan joint actions. | |  | Co-hosted by the World Bank/ASL, WWF, IDB, and the Bezos Earth Fund, over 90 experts came together in April in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to explore innovative financing strategies for biodiversity in Latin America and the Caribbean emphasizing collaboration, capacity building, and alignment with the Global Biodiversity Framework’s Target 19. | | | ASL engages in global dialogues | | This quarter, the ASL team joined key regional events advancing forest conservation. | | | | |
These efforts reflect the ASL’s ongoing commitment to knowledge exchange and coordinated action across critical forest landscapes.
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Highlights included:
- Indo-Malaya Critical Forest Biomes Inception Meeting in Thailand
- Annual Conference of the GEF-funded Critical Forests Integrated Programmes in the Congo Basin and Guinean Forest regions, held in Kribi, Cameroon (pictured right)
- Mesoamerica Conference in Guatemala (pictured above)
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A warm farewell to Ana María González Velosa as ASL's Program Coordinator
The ASL family extends our heartfelt thanks to Ana María, ASL Program Coordinator since 2020, for her exceptional leadership and dedication over the past five years.
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Under her guidance, the ASL has expanded to cover eight Amazon countries, raised awareness of the urgent need to safeguard the region, and strengthened collaboration among national and subnational governments, GEF and executing agencies, and key institutional partners.
At the heart of Ana María’s work is a deep commitment to the people and nature of the Amazon. We are truly grateful for her tireless efforts and wish her all the best as she transitions to working on Forests and Indigenous Peoples projects within the World Bank’s Global Environment Unit and will remain involved with the ASL project in Colombia!
| | | Stories from our active national projects | | Restoration and environmental governance initiatives showing success in Rondônia – Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Brazil project | | |
A joint mission of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Project (ASL Brazil) visited key sites in Rondônia to assess progress in forest restoration, environmental regularization, and territorial governance. The mission highlighted partnerships supporting native seed collection by Indigenous Karitiana communities, restoration of degraded areas using diverse methods, and technical assistance for small farmers to comply with environmental regulations. With support from ASL Brazil, Rondônia has significantly increased its capacity for rural land registration and environmental compliance, showing that integrated landscape management can improve biodiversity, livelihoods, and climate resilience.
Read the article (in Portuguese) and the latest edition of their newsletter
| | Fisheries monitors in the Colombian Amazon share experience & knowledge to strengthen programs – Heart of the Amazon project, Colombia | | |
Representatives from the Ramsar sites of Tarapoto Lakes and Estrella Fluvial del Inírida participated in a three-day exchange to share experiences in fisheries and territorial monitoring supported by the Heart of the Amazon project. This was a unique opportunity for communities receiving years of project support to connect and share their knowledge on wetland management. The event focused on exchanging methodologies, data collection practices, and community governance experiences to strengthen natural resource management and conservation. Participants, several from Indigenous communities, also presented the 2024 results from their biodiversity monitoring activities including camera trap data, reinforcing collaboration, and decision making for sustainable use of Ramsar wetland resources. A regional ASL event being planned will further scale up the spirit of collaboration with an in-person workshop with representatives from wetland areas in six amazon countries.
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Children lead World Environment Day celebration in the Ecuadorian Amazon –
Amazon Connectivity Corridors, Ecuador
| | In the Shuar community of Chuwitayo, located along the Palora–Pastaza connectivity corridor in Ecuador, 50 children participated in the workshop “Discover Species and Vital Reserves” (Descubre especies y reservas vitales) to learn about the importance of protecting wildlife and forest habitats. Through playful activities like puzzles, storytelling, and mask-making, the children learned about 10 key species and the ecological value of connectivity corridors and vital reserves for the conservation of these species. This initiative was a joint effort between the ASL’s Amazonian Connectivity Corridors project and the Vital Reserves project, supported by MAATE, CI-Ecuador, WWF, FFEM, and GEF. Photo credit: PR Estudio | | Promoting sustainable native vanilla reduction in Junín – Building Human Well-being and Resilience in Amazonian Forests project, Peru | | |
The Peruvian department of Junin is launching its first Public Investment Project in bio-businesses to strengthen the native vanilla value chain, with an estimated investment of 3.7 million soles (approx. US$980,000). Led by the Amazonian Forests ASL2 Project, this initiative will benefit 25 Indigenous communities in Satipo, promoting sustainable use of Amazonian biodiversity. The effort is supported by Peru’s Ministry of Environment, the Junín Regional Agricultural Directorate, and Profonanpe. Photo credit: H. Zell
| | Collaborative work protects 70,000 hectares of Amazon Forest from deforestation – Sustainable Productive Landscapes in the Peruvian Amazon (PPS) project, Peru | | |
More than 4,000 agricultural producers in the Peruvian Amazon, including from Indigenous communities, are implementing environmentally responsible practices to reduce pressure on forests. Through coordinated efforts in Huánuco and Ucayali, 70,000 hectares of Amazon forest have been protected from deforestation. This achievement is part of the ASL- PPS project, led by Peru’s Ministry of the Environment with support from UNDP. Photo credit: Bruno Cámara Rojo, UNDP Peru
Watch the video or read the article (in Spanish)
| | ASL2 project advances community-led Jaguar conservation and cultural storytelling in Suriname – Strengthening Management of Protected and Productive Landscapes in the Surinamese Amazon project, Suriname | |
Wildlife & People Suriname, with support from the ASL2 Suriname Project, launched a Jaguar Conservation Awareness Campaign to promote sustainable human and jaguar coexistence in the Saamaka-Matawai and Coeroeni-Paroe regions. The campaign engages communities, especially children and hunters, to reduce human-wildlife conflict and highlight the jaguar’s ecological role. The campaign aligns with the National Jaguar Action Plan by collecting and sharing traditional jaguar stories in at least 10 villages to raise cultural and conservation awareness.
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Amazon Futures: Indigenous Youth Leading Change
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
9:00 am (Quito/Bogotá/Lima)
10:00 am (Washington, D.C.)
With simultaneous interpretation in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
Commemorating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples & International Youth Day, this webinar co-organized with the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) will explore how science, policy, and governance can be strengthened through equitable engagement with Indigenous and local communities, especially from the Indigenous youth perspective and involvement. Photo: Gerardo Segura Warnholtz/PROFOR
| Replay previous webinars: | July 2025 – Knowledge for action: biological and cultural diversity of the Içá River Basin, Amazonas State, Brazil | |
Co-hosted with the Field Museum, this webinar explored a rapid biological and social inventory in the upper Içá River basin — one of the Amazon’s most remote and biodiverse regions. Led by a multinational team and Indigenous leaders, the expedition combined science with traditional knowledge to support conservation and the creation of the Putumayo–Içá Biocultural Corridor. Watch the recording here.
| | Find recordings of previous ASL webinars here. | | ASL-recommended publications, news & resources | | * ASL partners and teams: Please share with us your publications to showcase in future newsletters. | | Ecuador announces new connectivity corridor to protect nature and Indigenous territories | |
Ecuador's government, in collaboration with Conservation International-Ecuador, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the GEF, has officially recognized a vast stretch of Amazonian forest as a climate adaptation and connectivity corridor, designed to help wildlife migrate to cooler elevations as global temperatures rise. Spanning 316,323 hectares (781,650 acres), the Palora–Pastaza corridor will be the largest of its kind in Ecuador’s Amazon, linking protected forests with Indigenous territories and providing vital routes for the movement of jaguars, Amazonian tapirs, woolly monkeys, and other species that require large territories to feed, reproduce, and survive. This recognition marks an important milestone supported by the ASL’s Amazonian Connectivity Corridors project. Photo: Esteban Barrera CI-Ecuador
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Peru expands Amazon protection with new conservation area
After nearly a decade of advocacy and consultation with local communities, Peru has officially established the Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area in Loreto, protecting over 283,000 hectares of Amazon forest. This community-managed area is a vital step toward safeguarding biodiversity and enabling sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous and local populations. It also strengthens a 3.5 million- hectare conservation corridor across Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. This milestone reflects the Peruvian government’s commitment to conservation and the persistence of Indigenous and civil society actors.
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Sustainable transport infrastructure in the Amazon: A decade of lessons learned
This GEF blog examines a critical challenge in the Colombian Amazon: balancing the pressures of expanding infrastructure with the urgent need to conserve biodiversity. Mario Orlando López, Advisor at Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and Lina Margarita Annicchiarico from the Heart of the Colombian Amazon Project highlight collaborative efforts to integrate environmental considerations into road planning and offer key lessons on aligning development with sustainability goals.
| | | Peru becomes second Amazon nation to officially adopt mining impact calculator | | |
Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) and Peru’s Attorney General’s Office have signed an interinstitutional cooperation agreement to combat illegal gold mining by using CSF’s Mining Impacts Calculator (MIC), a tool that allows estimating the social and environmental damage of illegal gold mining in the Amazon. Peru becomes the second Amazonian country after Brazil to formally adopt the MIC, which is being tailored with local data and support from conservation partners. The collaboration aims to strengthen legal and technical responses to environmental crimes in the Amazon. Photo: Conservation Strategy Fund
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Young leaders target COP30
Over 600 global youth, led by the organization Life of Pachamama, have crafted a global declaration demanding real inclusion in climate decisions ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Their goal: collect 50,000 signatures and present the declaration directly to delegates of the 197 countries at the climate summit.
They’re calling for binding youth participation, environmental justice, and corporate accountability, placing young voices at the heart of climate policy, not just on the sidelines. Photo credit: Life of Pachama
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Colombian push for labor reform to benefit park rangers
Colombian lawmakers are making progress toward a special labor reform that recognizes the extreme demands and risks of the work of park rangers, who protect over 23 million hectares of forest. A new bill seeks better compensation, early retirement, and security measures for those stationed in remote and often dangerous territories. As threats from armed groups and environmental crimes rise, the reform could bring long-overdue recognition and protection to these frontline conservation heroes, following the positive efforts attained in Peru. Photo credit: Colombian National Parks
| | | Freddy Yainape – Colombia | | "Our territory is very vast and monitoring has helped us ensure the information we have is real. It has also become the eyes of the authorities." | | |
Freddy Yainape, from the Kurripako Indigenous people, is president of the Indigenous RAMSAR Committee and a leader of the Sabanitas community in the department of Guainía, Colombia. Since the age of 17 he has held many leadership roles in his community, Indigenous reserve, and as president of the Association of the Regional Indigenous Council of Guainía-ASOCRIGUA, which brings together Indigenous peoples across the department.
A trained technical and technological guide in ecotourism, Freddy blends academic knowledge with ancestral wisdom to lead processes of territorial governance. As president of the RAMSAR committee, he coordinates 25 Indigenous and farmer communities living across the Guaviare, Inírida, Atabapo, and Vichada rivers, including both rural and urban areas.
| | “My role as president is to help make the best decisions so that we have a sustainable use of natural resources.” | | Through the Heart of the Amazon project, Freddy and the RAMSAR Committee have strengthened territorial monitoring systems, combining traditional wisdom with technical tools to better understand and protect their lands. | |
The project has supported capacity building, enhanced governance structures, and allowed communities to generate management plans based on agreements and reliable territorial diagnostics. With this, local leaders can make informed decisions, addressing challenges like deforestation, illegal resource use, and the impacts of climate change.
Partners such as the CDA environmental authority and the NGO FCDS provide critical institutional support, but Freddy emphasizes that his strength comes from within. At the heart of Freddy’s work lies a deep understanding: territory is not just a place, but an identity, responsibility, and future. In guiding his people and allies, he carries forward a vision of Indigenous governance where conservation and community thrive together.
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| | The Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL), funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the World Bank, adopts an integrated regional approach across Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its primary objective is to enhance integrated landscape management and ecosystem conservation in priority areas of the Amazon. | | | | | |
