The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is an NGO that helps to
conserve the Amazon by working in direct partnership with the
indigenous people. Founded in 1996 by ethnobotanist Dr. Mark
Plotkin and renowned conservationist Liliana Madrigal, ACT has
spent the last decade and a half forming partnerships and
empowering Amazonian indigenous peoples to protect their land
and culture through grassroots conservation. Unlike traditional
conservation models, ACT has been committed to remaining agile,
focused, local and empowering. Working hard at capacity building
among their indigenous partners, ACT has built collaborative
relationships with more than 30 indigenous groups and pioneered
the idea of supporting indigenous people to conserve and sustain
endangered land. During its first 15 years, ACT has expanded
field operations to the northwest, northeast and southern
Amazonian regions. Together with their indigenous partners, ACT
has laid the essential groundwork for long-term protection of
more than 70 million rainforest