Founded in 1996, ACT is a nonprofit organization that works with indigenous people to conserve the biodiversity, traditional culture, and health in Amazonia. Currently, ACT has joined forces with 28 tribes of indigenous people to create an area of environmental and cultural conservation that spans more than 40 million acres of the rainforest.² ACT’s goal is to double that to 80 million by 2011.³ In the past, ACT partnered with the Brazilian government to help 14 tribes of the Xingu reserve to map their land of over 7.5 million acres of rainforest. The partnership with the Brazilian government validates the mapping project as a legal document and gives the indigenous people leverage to protect their lands against illegal activity. An article published in HerbalGram 62⁴ explained that the indigenous people made sketches of their ancestral lands, and then they were supplied with satellite photographs and portable global positioning systems (GPS) to map their territories accurately.

“Indigenous peoples know, manage, and protect the rainforest far better than we do,” said Mark Plotkin, PhD, co-founder and president of ACT.¹ “If you want to protect the rainforest, why not enlist the assistance of the people who actually live there?”

“[ACT] is a tremendous addition to the community of Skoll entrepreneurs who have demonstrated, through their inspiration and creativity, courage, and fortitude, that solutions do exist for some of the world’s intractable problems,” said Skoll President and CEO Sally Osberg.¹ “We believe their work has the potential for transformational benefit to indigenous cultures and forests of the Amazon and we’re honored to support their continued commitment to systemic change at the grassroots level.”

The Skoll Foundation was created by Jeff Skoll (ebay’s first president) in 1999.⁵ Its mission is to advance systemic change that benefit communities around the world by providing investment, connection, and celebration for social entrepreneurs.