The Amazon’s first indigenous-based non-profit organization, The Cofan Survival Fund (Fundación para la Sobrevivencia del Pueblo Cofan), has launched a new fundraising campaign to support its innovative rainforest conservation program, the Cofan Ranger Park Guard program. This indigenous-run program has achieved zero deforestation within the one million acres of biodiversity-rich lands that are under Cofan control. By joining the newly launched “Campaign for 5000,” each $10/month supporter will save 2,000 acres of Ecuadorian rainforest, offset their carbon emissions, and help preserve the Cofan indigenous culture.

The Fundación para la Sobrevivencia del Pueblo Cofán (FSC) and its US-based branch The Cofan Survival Fund have launched a new fundraising campaign, “The Campaign for 5000” to support the one-of-a-kind Cofán Ranger Park Guard program. The Cofan Ranger Park Guard Program, created and managed by the indigenous Cofán people of Northern Ecuador, has been responsible for the successful protection of over one million acres of some of the most biodiverse forests in the world.

The impressively varied Cofán Ancestral Territories, ranging in altitude from 300 to over 14,000 feet above sea level, are the frequent targets of poaching, illegal logging, mining, and large-scale oil extraction, all of which threaten the integrity of these globally-important ecosystems as well as the Cofán culture itself. In response, FSC established the Cofán Ranger Park Guard Program in 2002. This program currently consists of over 60 Cofán men and women who patrol and maintain hundreds of miles of trails within their territories. Their duties also include monitoring and recording the presence of important and endangered animal species such as tapir, jaguar and the Andean mountain bear, to keep tabs on ecosystem health and integrity.