Livelihoods First: Investing in Community-Led Conservation in the Amazon
About the session
Protecting the Amazon requires more than conservation projects. It requires strong, resilient local economies.
This session explores how impact capital and locally rooted enterprises can work together to protect biodiversity while strengthening livelihoods for Indigenous communities, smallholder farmers, regenerative producers, and forest stewards.
At the center of the conversation is a simple but often overlooked idea: improving livelihoods is not a side benefit of conservation, it is a prerequisite for it.
Drawing on experience from across the Amazon and Andes, speakers will share how place-based investment, Indigenous leadership, and regenerative value chains, including shade-grown coffee and other agroecological models, can move conservation beyond short-term projects toward durable systems that align livelihoods, culture, and forest protection.
The session will combine practitioner insights with open discussion, creating space to explore what it takes to build locally grounded, economically viable approaches to conservation at scale.
Who this is for
This session is for funders, investors, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in conservation, Indigenous leadership, and building sustainable, community-led economic systems.
What you will get out of it
Insights into how livelihoods and conservation can be aligned in practice
Perspectives from Indigenous leaders and practitioners working across the Amazon
Lessons from deploying patient, place-based capital in complex environments
A clearer understanding of how to support community-led conservation models
Speakers and contributors
Rodrigo Cunha, TEDxAmazônia (Moderator)
Juan Carlos Jintiach, Global Alliance of Territorial Communities
Pajani Singah, Amazonia Impact Ventures
Aaron Ebner, Project Yungas / Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development
Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter, IMPAQTO Capital
This session invites participants into a grounded, forward-looking conversation on how to build the next generation of conservation, rooted in livelihoods, led by communities, and supported by aligned capital.