Become a supporting member of Concienca Amazónica to support our endeavors for real change in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Apart from financial donations, we need international educators, doctors, family fathers and mothers, community leaders and proactive members of societies to assist with not only financial support, but educational materials, equipment, school and art supplies, to form a knowledge base we can use to change the future through education and action.
This is a cumulative project, crossing borders, boundaries, comfort zones, and cultural expectations, to provide education and support with a clear vision of empowered youth, prepared to confront head on local impoverishment on the political, educational, and economic fronts, with a larger vision of global change.
By becoming a member, you will have exclusive access to our activities, meet and greet with our team members and their exciting investigations on our reserves, and will be able to witness first hand how we stand apart from other conservation activists and foundations working in Ecuador.
We strongly believe that a root cause of the underdevelopment of the rural amazon (which happens to be replete with mineral resources, concessioned by international mining companies), is the lack of education in the basic sciences. Educational progress is not based on new classrooms, with mediocre teachers who lack drive and resources to educate their students. We identify the "rock-star" teachers, community leaders, and educators, and supply them with much needed materials and support to assist them with educating the next generation of Amazon residents.
We support schools with educational materials and equipment, linked with community activities to inspire and motivate proactive involvement in science and environmental education. We focus on equipment and didactic materials in the sciences, beginning with the Periodic Table of elements, world maps, basic anatomy charts of insects, birds, and common mammals, as well as posters of species identified on our reserves. As the majority of local students have family members that own farms, we begin byAs time goes on and mutual confidence and respect is built, we continue to improve the laboratories with microscopes and streo-scopes, projectors, and computational equipment. Complete kits for chemistry and physics are also supplied, complete with supplemental materials for the teachers, to guarantee a complete and dignified education for their students.
Much of the didactic material is derived from Scientific Investigations we conduct on our reserves. The majority of Academic Sciences are conducted in major Ecuadorian cities, including Quito, Cuenca, Guayaquil, and Loja. Studies in the Amazon thus require the indiscriminate collection and sacrificing of animals and insects, for later study in the cities hundreds of kilometers away. The information collected is never shared with the local communities, and in many cases, the property owners where the specimens were collected. We aim to construct a complete Bio-Research Laboratory on the Agett-Geary Reserve, in Gualaquiza County. Beginning in 2023, this property currently consists of 3 cattle farms, totalling over 750 acres, ranging in altitude from 1450m to 3000m. This altitudinal range implicates the existence of many mega-diverse ecosystems, from mid-altitude Andes-Amazon transition zone, to paramo on the highest ridges.
A Bio-Research Laboratory will allow us to begin a genomic library of all species we encounter on the reserves. With such equipment, we can also conduct a wide range of other scientific studies that would not require the sacrificing of specimens. This in the field research approach will also be a key element to demonstrate higher academic learning to local students, provide local employment, and open a new front in scientific investigations in Ecuador.
To date, we have national and international collaborations with many Universities, including the University of Azuay, in Cuenca. Students and professors are exposed to the reality of local Amazon socio-economic conditions, and given new insights in real world conservation activities. The scientific data acquired are shared with local teachers and communities, with the University students often participating in the workshops in communities and schools.
With this preface, we have identified the following priority projects, shown below.
Please visit the following links below to see how you can support the following key projects.
