Amazon Conservation & Indigenous Revival

Preserve Kamëntsá Yagé Wisdom & Restore Amazon
Reporting Period: February – June 2025
Project Location: Kamëntsá Territory, Sibundoy Valley – Alto Putumayo, Colombia

Dear GlobalGiving Donors,

We’re honored to share the continued progress of our work in the Kamëntsá territory. Since our last report in February, we’ve taken meaningful steps to expand and deepen our efforts to restore native ecosystems and protect ancestral plant medicine knowledge, also but not part of this project we are working on basic need support for the Kamentsa people and the revitalization of their Native Lenguage—thanks in part to your continued work.

"In Kamëntsá cosmovision, life flows in cycles. Everything is connected—humans, rivers, forests, and the unseen. This vision guides every tree we plant, every sacred plant we care for, and every elder we stand beside. We hold our supporting community in this same spirit of reciprocity and prayer."

Recent Achievements

(February – June 2025)

Reforestation and Plant Medicine conservation Milestones

• 200 new native and endangered trees planted, expanding our Amazon Conservation reforestation initiative in community-identified areas.

• 1,000 Urapán trees (used for traditional wood crafts) are now being cultivated in Benitos Chindoy green house lot and will be distributed to Kamëntsá artisans to restore the supply of culturally significant trees.

• Ongoing protection and care of previously planted seedlings including endangered species like Yagé, Yarumo, Palmito, Chilca, Motilón, and Nacedero.

Botanical Garden Maintenance

• Continued cultivation of over 150 native medicinal plants, including Yagé (ayahuasca), guided by Don Neftalí our field worker.

• The garden is now being equipped with plant signs, transforming it into a community learning space where plant medicine knowledge is shared between elders, children, and visiting herbalists.

 Cultural & Ecological Integration

This project is about more than trees. It’s about rekindling the deep spiritual relationship between the Kamëntsá people and their ancestral land.

• Through every planting cycle, we host ceremonial planting gatherings, led by elders, where stories, songs, and prayers are offered to the land.

• Our reforestation work now includes riverbank restoration, helping protect vital water sources and sacred sites.

• We’ve begun integrating trees used in Kamëntsá craftwork, making ecological and cultural restoration one and the same.

 Looking Forward: What’s Next

Thanks to your continued support, we are preparing to:

• Complete planting of another 500 native trees in upcoming months.

• Continue expanding our medicinal plant nursery, particularly for species critical to ceremony and healing.

• Launch a pilot program to train youth in traditional agroforestry techniques.

• Develop multilingual signage in our garden to honor Kamëntsá names, uses, and cosmological meanings of each plant, addign this to our website.

Every tree planted and every medicine nurtured is a thread in the web of life. We thank you for walking this path of sacred reciprocity with us.

Your support isn’t just protecting biodiversity—it’s helping a people remember who they are, and helping the forest remember how to thrive.

With deep gratitude,

The OIOC Team
www.oioc.co | info@oioc.co