Your Forest. Your Legacy.

The Amazon’s biodiversity sustains life — and needs protection.

While local communities nurture and protect the land, industrial forces close in — lured by the promise of gold, hidden minerals, and the timber towering above.

The forest, alive with centuries of biodiversity and Indigenous wisdom, risks being flattened for profit. Once deforested, the delicate balance collapses — soil washes away, wildlife disappears, waterways are poisoned, and ancestral knowledge is lost.

A Forest on the Frontline

A forest at the frontline

Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse — and threatened — countries on Earth. In the northeast, the Napo Province marks the gateway to the Amazon, where the rainforest meets ancestral Kichwa territory.

This region is a mosaic of lush ecosystems:

Primary and secondary forest, wetlands, regenerating lands, and agroforestry plots
Over 500 bird species, and 300+ tree species

This region is a mosaic of lush ecosystems:

Primary and secondary forest, wetlands, regenerating lands, and agroforestry plots
Over 500 bird species, and 300+ tree species

But it’s also frontline. Illegal mining, deforestation, and roads are closing in — even near protected areas.

Right here, in this tension, lies Sacha Samay Sinchi — 35 hectares of rainforest now being defended and restored by a Kichwa women-led project.

What we defend

Urgent Threat from Gold Mining in the Napo Region

Gold mining in the Amazon destroys big parts of the forest. Deforestation takes away the home to thousands of animals, birds, and plants. The machines and digging tear down trees, while chemicals like mercury poison the rivers, making it hard for fish and other wildlife to survive. Life sustaining water resources get spoiled and don't serve as drinking water any more. Losing its biodiversity, the whole ecosystem becomes weaker.

Gold prices up 80% since 2022, fuelling a mining boom in Ecuador’s Napo Province.
Mining concessions reopened in 2023, with new permits overlapping protected forests and Indigenous lands.
40% of mining is illegal, driven by heavy machinery and toxic mercury extraction.

Our Plan

Your contribution helps to stop gold mining from expanding in this region.As we are setting up an alternative model of co-living with the Amazon Forest that allows the diversity of trees and plants, birds, mammals and fish AND people, forest frontlines get defended and local people get an opportunity to gestalten ihr leben in harmony with nature.

How we do this

We bought the 350.000 m² forest land so no mining company can take it.

We joined forces with 24 indigenous guardians who know and care for the forest.

We enrich the forest by planting trees and protecting wildlife, making it stronger and more diverse.

We transform the land a protected nature reserve, so the law helps keep it safe.

We give the guardians tools and support to watch over and protect the forest.

We build nature-friendly jobs (like tourism and agroforestry) so the community can care for the forest forever.

Select the Land You’ll Help Defend

Illegal mining is coming. We patrol the land, push for legal protection, study and restore the forest, collect seeds and plant native trees, and keep a close watch on wildlife and rivers. Your support gives us the tools and power to defend this rainforest — step by step. Back the forest. Be a guardian.

Your donation at work

Breaking it down to 10 Euros of support, 3,5 Euro help us to secure land and 6,5 Euro allow us to protect what's in there.

Explore the forest you protect

While local communities nurture and protect the land, industrial forces close in — lured by the promise of gold, hidden minerals, and the timber towering above.

A Forest on the Frontline

A forest at the frontline

This region is a mosaic of lush ecosystems:

Primary and secondary forest, wetlands, regenerating lands, and agroforestry plots
Over 500 bird species, and 300+ tree species

This region is a mosaic of lush ecosystems:

Primary and secondary forest, wetlands, regenerating lands, and agroforestry plots
Over 500 bird species, and 300+ tree species

But it’s also frontline. Illegal mining, deforestation, and roads are closing in — even near protected areas.

Right here, in this tension, lies Sacha Samay Sinchi — 35 hectares of rainforest now being defended and restored by a Kichwa women-led project.

What we defend

Extreme Biodiversity

A sign of balance, now under threat.

VSF_BLOG_09.25_CANVA_Amazon Rainforest, river, aerial

Water Security

This land hosts springs that flow into the Amazon’s lifeblood.

Food and Medicine

Fruit, herbs, and native crops grow here, securing sovereignty.

Dignified Future

The forest sustains a local economy of tourism, education, and harvests — not extraction.

Ancestral Wisdom

It’s not just biodiversity — it’s memory, language, and belonging.

A Science Lab

Research on carbon and biodiversity marks this forest as vital for Amazon conservation.

Urgent Threat from Gold Mining in the Napo Region

Gold prices up 80% since 2022, fuelling a mining boom in Ecuador’s Napo Province.
Mining concessions reopened in 2023, with new permits overlapping protected forests and Indigenous lands.
40% of mining is illegal, driven by heavy machinery and toxic mercury extraction.

Our Plan

How we do this

We bought the 350.000 m² forest land so no mining company can take it.

We joined forces with 24 indigenous guardians who know and care for the forest.

We enrich the forest by planting trees and protecting wildlife, making it stronger and more diverse.

We transform the land a protected nature reserve, so the law helps keep it safe.

We give the guardians tools and support to watch over and protect the forest.

We build nature-friendly jobs (like tourism and agroforestry) so the community can care for the forest forever.

Select the Land You’ll Help Defend

Your donation at work

Breaking it down to 10 Euros of support, 3,5 Euro help us to secure land and 6,5 Euro allow us to protect what's in there.