Natural Products from the Rainforest: Developing Much-Needed, Safe, Real-World Economic Opportunities to Support Communities in the Heart of the Amazon Basin
The Matsés live in remote villages deep in the Amazon Rainforest that are difficult to access and cost-prohibitive for commerce with the outside world. Accordingly, Matsés villages have limited economic opportunities and are becoming increasingly dependent on traded goods and extrinsic resources. The younger generations, as in the case with most Amazonian forest tribes, have limited economic alternatives to participation in activities such as logging of valuable hard wood, gold-mining, petroleum exploration and extraction, and the wildlife trade that result in profoundly negative effects on their health, culture, and environment.
In addition to providing a delicious fruit, arasá also has medicinal qualities.
Acaté seeks to explore and develop alternative approaches to develop viable long-term projects to generate revenue for Matsés communities and provide alternatives for unsustainable and destructive activities. These include the sustainable harvest and marketing of non-timber forest products with medicinal or cosmetic value, such as copaiba and sangre de grado. We work with the communities to identify and demarcate locations of trees within their territories in addition to collaborating with consultants to develop optimal techniques for sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products. Our team also works to strategize the most cost-effective means of transportation for sending the goods from their remote territories to local markets. Acaté serves as consultants to assist in the development of agreements with local and national buyers for the purchase of the materials.
Acaté Amazon Conservation is a non-profit conservation organization based in the United States and Perú that is an extraordinary partnership of the Matsés indigenous people and dedicated conservationists with decades of experience. The Matsés indigenous people live along the tributaries of the upper Javari River, in the heart of the Amazon Basin of what is now the present day border between northeastern Peru and Brazil. The Matsés are famed as fierce warriors due to their defeat of the rubber tappers who invaded their territory early in the 20th century and their long conflict against frontier colonizers backed by the Peruvian military. Peaceful contact with the outside world began in 1969 when they accepted a meeting with missionaries. Today, the Matsés still live by hunting, fishing and farming but in family homes in permanent villages instead of in communal longhouses in temporary villages.
The Matsés safeguard a vast and biodiverse corridor of intact primary rainforest as well as shield some of the last remaining uncontacted tribal groups in isolation from unwanted encroachment from the outside world.
All of Acaté’s projects are developed in a close partnership with, led, and implemented by the Matsés indigenous people. We operate through implementing strategic programs and real-on-the-ground initiatives that help them protect their chosen way of life, traditions, their ancestral lands and ecology. The on-the-ground conservation initiatives are capacity-building and designed to support their self-sufficiency and independence. Acaté operates with unparalleled integrity and transparency in its operations, partnerships, and reporting.
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Please consider donating today to support our work. The Matsés and other indigenous peoples in the Amazon struggle with the most limited external resources to protect the future of their people, culture, and their rainforests. Each donation will be applied where it will have the highest impact and with full transparency and accountability. Acaté does not exist for the sake of sitting on the sidelines. We are here to make a true impact and we welcome your support!
Canopy of Copaiba tree Copaifera spp. in Peruvian Amazon ©Acaté 