Gaia Amazonas works directly with the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Amazon to protect the region's outstanding cultural and biological diversity. It helps to strengthen community and ecosystem resilience; enable indigenous people to develop innovative education, health, environmental and governance initiatives; and influence sustainable development for effective tropical forest conservation and ecosystem services.

…more than a 100 million hectares of forest in the northwest Amazon have been conserved as a refuge for existing biological and cultural diversity, resilient to the effects of climate change such as the southeast Amazon becoming a savannah.

Gaia Amazonas is a Colombian non-governmental organisation, founded by Martin von Hildebrand and formally registered in 1994. It has been recognised internationally for its influence and effective action for indigenous rights and tropical forest protection. Both the organisation and the founding Director have been commended by the World Commission on Forest and Sustaianable Development, and received awards such as Colombia's National Environmental Prize and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

An interdiscplinary team of lawyers, anthropologists, linguists, pedagogues, biologists, medics and political scientists, work from a main office and resource centre in Bogitá, from field offices in the Colombian Amazon, and an inter-cultural training centre in La Pedrera, on the Caquetá River.

Field activities are mostly carried out in the Vaupés, Guainía and Amazonas regions. Other initiatives include the coordination of the COAMA (Consolidation of the Amazon) programme and the CANOA (Cooperation and Alliance in the Northwest Amazon) porgramme. The COAMA programme saw NGOs (including The Gaia Foundation as an international partner) united to share the common objective of conserving the Colombian Amazon while supporting and implementing the rights of indigenous people. In 1999 the COAMA programme received the Right Livelihood Award. The CANOA programme (Cooperation and Alliance in the Northwest Amazon), is another alliance which brings together indigenous, non-government and government organizations to protect a continuous expanse, over 100 million hectares, of tropical forest across Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil, through a mosaic of protected areas and indigenous territories.

For more information on the work of Gaia Amazonas:

The Colombian Exchange

Consolidating indigenous territories in the Amazon

Intangible Cultural Heritage - safeguarding the Pirá Paraná

Mining the Earth

Yaigoje Apaporis, threatened by gold mining

Contact details:
Address: Cra.4 No.26B-31, Bogotá
Telephone: +57 1 2814925 / 2814985
Email: coordinacion@gaiaamazonas.org
Web: www.gaiaamazonas.org