On November 26, a coalition of civil society organizations and law professors submitted an amicus brief to Ecuador’s Constitutional Court calling for the protection of the Piatúa River based on the Rights of Nature and Indigenous rights. The Piatúa River is under threat from a hydroelectric project that Ecuador’s government approved without the free, prior, and informed … [Read more...]
Gathering Shamans to save the land
The Amazon Conservation Team has achieved success by abandoning conventional land protection practices and following the guidance of shamans. I met Liliana Madrigal and her husband, Dr. Mark Plotkin, at an environmental grant makers’ conference in 2001. With my background in anthropology and my work with an environmental foundation, I had been interested in the Amazon … [Read more...]