Our Story
The Challenge
About 15% of all Earth's biodiversity is in the Amazon.
The Amazon is home to 30 million inhabitants, most of them Indigenous people. These communities are effective and rightful guardians of their ancestral territories and rainforest ecosystems. Yet many Indigenous communities lack basic access to electricity and rely on imported gasoline for their energy needs.
Roads are paving the way for rapid deforestation in rainforest ecosystems.
A rapidly expanding network of roads in the world’s largest tropical forest is degrading ecosystems and hastening climate change tipping points. For every kilometer of new road built in the Amazon, 40,000 square meters of forest are cleared.
The Opportunity
The Amazon is one of the few regions in the world without existing wide-scale infrastructure for transportation and electricity. How it is built will define the fate of the planet and the future of Indigenous territories.
We believe that the best way to preserve the rainforest is to empower its Indigenous custodians. Research from the Conservation Strategy Fund shows that support for roads in Achaur communities dropped from 41% to 2% after the introduction of solar transport options.¹ By building community-controlled solar infrastructure and technical capacity in vulnerable territories, we are strengthening traditional cultures and activating economic alternatives to extractive development across the Amazon.
¹ Vilela, Thaís, and Sophía Espinoza. “Analysis of electric transportation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Conservation Policy in Brief. Conservation Strategy Fund, October 2023.