Renewal Grant from Good Energies Foundation Funds Indigenous-led Protection of the Amazon

(Top image: ECA Amarakaeri leader and technician Luis Tayori talks with communal guards about MAPEO, one of the tech tools used to protect the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve and adjoining communal lands. Credits: amarakaeri.org)

Digital Democracy is thrilled to announce a two-year renewal grant from Good Energies Foundation to continue our work with Amazonian Indigenous Peoples and grassroots organizations to defend their forests and ecosystems. 

Good Energies Foundation’s support has allowed us to work alongside local groups in the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Colombian Amazon, providing them with technologies and training to document a variety of illegalities and carry out territorial mapping projects that will safeguard their lands from future threats. This renewal grant will enable us to continue and deepen our work with existing partners in the Amazon and accompany emerging partners, particularly in Brazil, to fill some of the gaps in support made evident by the Covid-19 pandemic, and work on new strategies to build resilience in these systems for the future. 

“Support from the Good Energies Foundation played a critical role over the last 18 months, enabling us to provide ongoing support to Indigenous partners in the western Amazon who were facing the double threats of illegal encroachment on their territories as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. This generous grant from the Good Energies Foundation helps us meet increasing demand from local partners, particularly in Brazil, where Indigenous forest guardians are on the frontlines of gathering data to document and halt illegal deforestation.” Emily Jacobi, Digital Democracy Executive Director & Founder

The renewed support from Good Energies Foundation will allow us to greatly increase frontline Indigenous communities’ ability to work autonomously to find and document evidence of illegalities and to use this evidence to successfully protect their lands, calling on local, national and/or international enforcement bodies, legal and public awareness campaigns. The support will enable us to focus on increasing the capacity of local trainers, developing new autonomy-building features in Mapeo, and investing in peer-support networks across the Amazon, including the inaugural Indigenous Tech Fellowship.