Nature and Culture International

With 12 offices, local NCI affiliates work with local actors for conservation in Peru, Ecuador and Mexico while working with local sister organizations in Colombia, Bolivia, and Brazil. NCI works with local and indigenous communities, together with authorities to legally establish and set up sustainable management practices for government, community, private and biosphere reserves, protecting more than 25.7 million acres to date.

Some of the projects that NCI is currently focused on include:

• Building the Amazonian Platform: Bringing local governments and indigenous nationalities together to create over 11 million acres of continuous, protected forest in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Amazonian Platform spans 3 Ecuadorian provinces– Pastaza, Morona Santiago, and Zamora Chinchipe, and creates a collaborative agreement between the governors of the Ecuadorian Amazon and Indigenous nationalities that live within these areas to protect a largely intact section of dense Amazonian Forest.
• NCI is a pioneer in the construction and support for the implementation of REDD+ Plans at the jurisdictional level; the first experience was implemented together with the Government of Pastaza. Now, the objective is to replicate this financial sustainability model, based on the REDD+ Plan, to the other Amazon provinces.
• Connecting the Andean Corridor: Creating a cross-border, continuous, protected corridor down the spine of the Andes Mountain range in Ecuador and Peru. Spanning 236 miles and two countries, the Andean Corridor project will protect one of the most biologically diverse places on our planet.
• Ecuador Water Source Protection: Nature and Culture leverages local interest in preserving access to clean, abundant water to drive conservation. Ultimately this leads to the preservation of local biodiversity, nearby forests, ecosystems, and food security for local populations. In Ecuador, a Water Protection Area (WPA) is a nationally recognized, legally protected territory that conserves these precious water sources.
• Cuenca del Mayo – Mexico. A 220-mile corridor that connects four federally protected areas, Cuenca del Mayo is an area in the northernmost region of the tropics and is one of Earth’s most unique ecosystems. NCSM is working to create a permanent contiguous habitat connecting existing Nature and Culture reserves with four federally protected areas to the northeast. In total, these connected areas will span 220 miles and 4.5 million acres. The corridor will be used by a wide range of national-level endangered species like the jaguar, migratory global endangered species like the thick-billed parrot, and endemic endangered species like the lilac crowned amazon.