Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative: Initial Results and Contributions to Global Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

The Sacred Headwaters region of Ecuador and Peru is composed of the ancestral territories of a dozen indigenous nations, adjoined by a number of protected areas, together forming a vast contiguous mosaic containing the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. These rainforests are critical carbon sinks and help to stabilize our global climate and rainfall and yet, they are facing a chronic and ever-increasing risk from extractive industries.