OIOC is an Indigenous-led Kamentsa organization protecting the Upper Amazon through biocultural revitalization: restoring native forests while strengthening the language and knowledge systems that have cared for them for generations. In the Sibundoy Valley, we propagate native and medicinal plants-including Yage-restore ancestral Chagra ecosystems, expand a community native-tree nursery, and support Kamentsa language revitalization and community-led linguistic research.
In the Kamentsa Territory of Colombia's Upper Amazon, ecological and cultural loss are deeply interconnected. Deforestation, monoculture, and the loss of native and medicinal plants threaten biodiversity, water, food systems, and ancestral Chagras. At the same time, the Kamentsa language is critically vulnerable, placing generations of knowledge about Yage, medicine, plants, and territory at risk. Protecting the forest also means protecting the knowledge and language that sustain it.
Two Dimensions of One Living System OIOC advances biocultural revitalization by restoring native forests while strengthening the knowledge that sustains them. Our pilot Chagra combines native trees, Yage and medicinal plants, food crops, and forest-inspired regenerative practices. We are expanding our greenhouse to provide native seedlings to Kamentsa families, while our language school and community-led autodiagnostico strengthen the transmission of language and ancestral ecological knowledge.
OIOC aims to create a community-led model where forest and culture regenerate together. An expanded native-tree nursery will help Kamentsa families restore their lands and ancestral Chagras while conserving Yage, medicinal plants, biodiversity, and water sources. Language revitalization will strengthen the transmission of ecological knowledge to future generations, creating a living model of Indigenous-led biocultural revitalization for the Upper Amazon.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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