Home to the planet’s largest tropical rainforest as well as the highest density of plant and animal biodiversity, the Amazon biome is essential to our planetary wellbeing. It is a massive carbon sink, storing over 150 billion metric tons of carbon and absorbing some 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. And it plays a critical role in water cycles, releasing 20 billion tons of water into the atmosphere every day.
Its biodiversity supports a complex web of life and has provided significant advances in modern medicine. And today, it is home to over 350 Indigenous communities who continue to steward the land in the face of existential threats of climate change, illegal mining, deforestation, and more.
In 2023, Connecting Cultures was launched with the aim of supporting young Indigenous leaders in the Peruvian Amazon as advocates for their communities’ efforts to continue providing that essential stewardship of these lands, including the sustainable use and conservation of natural resources for the long-term benefit of their communities and the environment. Connecting Cultures has three core objectives:
- Strengthen Indigenous leadership in Amazonian communities to address the threats from environmental crimes occurring in their communities and territories.
- Build international ally networks with Indigenous communities and support actors in the United States
- Promote the participation of Indigenous youth in the management of sustainable natural resource development their communities
In its first two years, Connecting Cultures welcomed 16 Indigenous leaders representing 11 nations in the Peruvian Amazon to the United States for interactive workshops and dialogues. Their visits have allowed them to connect with each other, with students and faculty at Wake Forest University, and with leaders in Washington D.C. including at NASA, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of the State.
Connecting Cultures has been a partnership of the Sabin Center, CINCIA, Wake Forest University, and the State Department, and has been facilitated thanks to the incredible leadership of Miles Silman and Gillian Hagamen at the Sabin Center, Luis Fernandez, Marta Torres, and Carmen Acho at CINCIA, and Edgar Flores of the US Embassy to Peru in Lima. We are grateful for the support of the following partners in making this program possible:
