Projects

Working together to protect the rainforest: our partnership with Shintuya

Protecting the rainforest can only be achieved by working together. That is why we are supporting the indigenous Shintuya people in protecting their homeland and, together, we are creating an important wildlife corridor.

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, in the province of Manu, lies one of our new conservation areas: the Secret Forest Manu. Indigenous communities live around this area; they not only regard the forest as their habitat, but also see it as an integral part of their history, culture and identity. One of these communities is Shintuya. What connects us to Shintuya is therefore more than just a shared nature conservation project. It is a relationship based on a long-standing friendship, which is now developing into a strategic partnership.
Three Indigenous people wearing traditional headdresses and jewelry stand together in a rainforest setting.
Victoria is one of the elders of the Shintuya. Her knowledge of the rainforest is vast, and we feel honoured that she and her family are showing us such hospitality and sharing their knowledge with us.

When the forest comes under pressure

The forests around Shintuya have long been under threat from commercial interests. There have been, and continue to be, repeated attempts to develop the region for the extraction of raw materials. These include, in particular, gold mining and concessions for potential oil and gas production.

The indigenous communities in the region have opposed these developments for many years. The Secret Forest Manu, too, lies at the heart of a concession for the development of the area. This brings together differing conceptions of land: what appears, from a company’s perspective, as a reservoir of raw materials, or from the state’s perspective as a concession area, is, for the local people, their home, their livelihood and part of their cultural identity.


Map showing protected area in green and Hydrocarbon Exploration Lot MD-XP-001 in brown/orange with red arrow indicator.
For decades, indigenous communities have been campaigning to ensure that this existing oil and gas concession is not exploited by companies.
The question of which perspective determines the future of a place is therefore also a question of power. With Wilderness International, Shintuya now has an international partner at its side. The community hopes this will give their voice greater international weight and strengthen the protection of their territory in the long term. For us, this means that we do not speak on behalf of the community, but rather help to ensure that their own voice can be heard.

The consequences of the demand for raw materials hit those who benefit least from it

The Amazon region, in particular, illustrates just how unevenly the consequences of natural resource extraction are distributed, as is especially evident in the case of gold mining. An analysis published by Mongabay in September 2026 evaluated 39 scientific studies on mercury pollution in the Amazon regions of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. According to the analysis, at least 249 indigenous and other river-dependent communities were examined, of which 220 (88 per cent) had mercury levels above the limits deemed safe by the World Health Organisation. A further 702 communities are considered at risk due to their location in potential contamination zones. Shintuya is also mentioned in the research, and members of the community are quoted.
Aerial view of an illegal gold mining operation in rainforest with muddy brown water, excavators, and cleared land.
Illegal gold mines like these are becoming increasingly common along the rivers in the Amazon rainforest. We don’t see them very often in Manu yet, but unfortunately all the more so in Tambopata.

Mercury enters rivers primarily as a result of gold mining – which makes illegal gold mines one of the greatest threats to the tropical rainforest. The mercury can spread far beyond the actual mining areas via watercourses, fish and food chains. For communities that depend on healthy rivers, forests and fish stocks, this pollution can therefore have life-threatening consequences.

This highlights a fundamental injustice: the people who benefit least from the industrial exploitation of raw materials often pay a particularly high price for it. For us, therefore, protecting the rainforest is always also a matter of environmental justice.

Harakbut: When colonial history continues to have an impact today

Shintuya is the name of the community where people from various indigenous backgrounds live together. An important group within the community are the Harakbut people. The Harakbut have managed to preserve their own culture and language despite massive external influences. However, missionary activity and the increasing pressure from people who came to the region in search of gold and other natural resources have left a deep mark. Many of the stories we heard during our visits to Shintuya recount these experiences.

The Harakbut are an indigenous people from the Peruvian Amazon region with their own identity, history, language, culture, worldview, institutions and forms of organisation. The Harakbut people maintain a close connection to their ancestral territory, which is understood not merely as a geographical space, but as the place where the people’s collective life, culture, spirituality, ancestral knowledge, economy and political organisation flourish.

The Harakbut see themselves as descendants of the Wanamei (wanãmẽi or anãmẽi), the Tree of Life, a fundamental element of their worldview and collective identity. It was from this identity that the Nacion Harakbut, an autonomous territorial government, emerged.1 Its main objectives are:

  • to ensure the self-government and self-determination of the Harakbut people
  • to defend their cultural identity
  • to defend their existing, legally recognised territories and reclaim ancestral lands

For many years, the Nacion Harakbut has been fighting against a wide range of problems, ranging from the economic exploitation of their territories through oil and gas extraction, to gold mining operators, loggers, land occupiers from outside the region (not indigenous peoples of the Amazon, but from the Peruvian Andes) and papaya monoculture producers, to lobbying the government for the provision of basic services. The main allies of these communities are NGOs such as Wilderness International.

Indigenous man wearing feathered headdress and spotted headband plays a wooden flute in the forest.
Oteri is accompanying our expedition team and sharing his vast knowledge of the forest’s plants with us.
Forest guardian Oteri, for example, recounted how, as a young boy, he was separated from his parents and his village community and sent to a Catholic boarding school far from his home, as at that time that was the only place where the children of the community could receive a ‘proper’ education. At the same time, this meant he largely lost the opportunity to continue living out his own language, culture and connection to his homeland in a direct way. Such experiences are not a thing of the distant past. To this day, they shape what knowledge is passed on, which languages are spoken and how people are able to live out their connection to their land.
Indigenous woman and visitor examine photographs together in a green exhibition space with cultural materials displayed.
Victoria told our presenter, Hannah, a lot about Shintuya’s history.
That is why, for us, nature conservation means more than simply protecting land from deforestation or the extraction of raw materials. It also means supporting people in passing on their relationship with their land, their culture and their traditional knowledge in a self-determined way. This includes highlighting colonial legacies and creating spaces for cultural self-determination.

Culture and nature are inseparable

What is important to us is this: we are not coming to Shintuya to tell them how nature conservation should work. Rather, we see ourselves as learners and supporters. We have accepted the community’s explicit invitation to work with them to protect the Secret Forest Manu and to support them in preserving and reclaiming their ancestral territory and culture for future generations.

An important milestone on this journey is the growing recognition of the Harakbut’s cultural heritage. This includes the Rostro Harakbut, a monumental stone face over five metres high deep in the rainforest, which holds special cultural and spiritual significance for the Harakbut and has been recognised as part of Peru’s cultural heritage since 2021. Such places demonstrate that the value of a forest extends far beyond what can be measured in hectares, tonnes of carbon or species counts.

A diverse group of people seated on blue chairs listen to a speaker in a colourful community space with vibrant murals and artistic decorations.
Our Peruvian team visited the Shintuya to work out a plan for our future collaboration.
In April 2026, we worked with the community to develop a concrete plan for how our collaboration might take shape. Our environmental education team was on the ground to get to know Shintuya better and, first and foremost, to do one thing: listen. Through a joint workshop, discussions and surveys, we worked together to identify which issues are particularly important to local people and where concrete support might be most useful. Two key objectives, amongst others, emerged from this process: to strengthen the sense of regional identity and to promote appreciation for the Amazon rainforest and its unique wildlife. A joint action plan was drawn up as a result of these discussions.

Forest restoration across more than six hectares

The first concrete project was launched as early as July 2026. Together with the community’s residents, we restored more than six hectares of damaged woodland near the community. The land had previously been damaged by logging.

The initiative arose at the request of Kelly, the coordinator of the Shintuya Women’s Association. The community was supported in this by our agroforestry coordinator, Alejandro Hilares, who provided expert guidance on the planting, ran training sessions, organised the transport of the seedlings and planned the planting strips together with those involved.

Workers in safety gear load green vegetation and leafy plants onto a truck surrounded by dense forest foliage.
During our joint planting event, everyone lent a hand and had a chat.
It was not just the size of the restored area that was remarkable. The joint planting initiative turned into a lively exchange between our team and the local community. Knowledge was shared, experiences were exchanged, and together we worked hands-on to restore damaged areas to their former status as a vibrant part of the landscape.

Sharing knowledge and raising awareness

The collaboration is set to continue on an ongoing basis, and various joint activities are planned for the coming months. These include, amongst other things, a bokashi workshop (sustainable composting), communication initiatives to support the marketing of traditional handicrafts with a view to strengthening the economic position of women in the community, as well as workshops on bats and birds to promote intergenerational dialogue on the value of local wildlife.
Woman presenting to a group of men and children in a blue classroom with large grid windows.
The exchange of knowledge is one of the key pillars of our collaboration with the Shintuya.

Together with the community, we also want to set up an organic garden for the local nursery. We want children to be able to experience first-hand where food comes from, how healthy eating works, and the importance of the plant life in their homeland. This is not just about environmental education. Above all, the planned projects are intended to help strengthen the Amazonian identity and the connection to the land, to highlight the role of women and craftswomen as custodians and transmitters of traditional knowledge, to pass on knowledge about the forest and its wildlife from one generation to the next, and to create spaces for exchange between children, young people, adults and older generations.

Some members of the community are also already working as forest guardians for Wilderness International. This does not simply provide an additional source of local income – their knowledge is invaluable for the protection of the Secret Forest Manu. For those who know the forest not only with their minds but also with their hearts know it in a way that no satellite map can replace

Indigenous woman with traditional face paint, headband and beaded jewelry in forest setting.
Only when the forest is healthy can we humans be healthy too. The Shintuya are convinced of this.

Working together for a forest that is so much more

Places like Shintuya lie far from Peru’s political centres. As a result, support from state institutions often reaches remote regions only to a limited extent. This makes strong local structures and partnerships, based on trust and mutual respect, all the more important.

For Wilderness International, the partnership with Shintuya therefore goes far beyond mere forest conservation. We do not simply want to protect a patch of rainforest. We want to work together with the people who know this forest, live with it and help shape its future. 

The Secret Forest Manu is not just a protected area on a map. It is part of a nature corridor where people live, pass on their stories, grow crops, observe animals, preserve knowledge and shape their future. And that is precisely why we believe that long-term rainforest conservation can only work if we work together. We are grateful and honoured by the openness with which the people of Shintuya welcome us – and by the trust they place in us.

Our partnership begins with the protection of the forest. Its ultimate goal, however, is a shared future in which nature, culture and the self-determination of the people connected to it are considered as a whole.

Large diverse group of approximately 25 people standing together in a lush tropical forest surrounded by tall trees and dense green foliage.
Our team, together with representatives from Shintuya, on our last expedition.

Sources

1 https://nacionharakbut.org.pe/los-harakbut/

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