Pachamama Foundation

Summary

The Pachamama Foundation was created in 1997 in Ecuador as the sister organization of the Pachamama Alliance that was itself born in Ecuador following the visit of a group of tourists from California, USA, to the Achuar territory, home of an indigenous group that maintains its traditional lifestyle within the tropical rainforest in a remote region of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Maintaining rainforests is a key issue within national and international discussions, especially in countries like Ecuador where the great diversity and variety of indigenous groups live in the Amazon. The close relationship that the Pachamama Foundation maintains with Ecuadorian Amazon indigenous groups has facilitated dialogue about issues of global importance such as climate change, forest governance and collective rights.

The Pachamama Foundation project on Climate Change and REDD+ seeks to build capabilities, promote indigenous rights and monitor national and international negotiations on climate change. This emphasis of this initiative is to monitor, report on and verify the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism in Ecuador and the region in order to avoid leaks and loss of cultures and biodiversity from tropical forests.