Amazonia Yurahu Alliance
We Are One Family
Together. United. One step. One heartbeat. One project at a time.
- Kenewma Yawanawá
Planting the seeds for the next generation

The Yawanawá
Guardians of the Rio Gregorio territories in Acre, Brazil
A Thriving Way Of Life In The Forest
The Yawanawá are a bridge between the past and the future of the Amazon rainforest. They live among 9 villages along the Gregorio River in the state of Acre, Brazil, on lands that their Indigenous ancestors have called their home for eons. Theirs is a story of connection to their land, their traditions, and a commitment to passing that connection to the next generations of the Yawanawá.
Traditional Knowledge
The Yawanawá have a deep traditional knowledge of the forest, its plants, and healing properties. They have always passed this knowledge from one generation to the next through their oral tradition. The Yawanawá are at risk of losing their traditional knowledge due to the rapid deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest. The impact of colonization, including being forbidden from teaching their language and culture, has created a generational gap in passing this knowledge from one generation to the next. The elders of the villages, the last keepers of their traditional knowledge, are dying before they can pass it on to the new generations.
Preserving Into The 21st Century
The Yawanawá people are strengthening their traditional knowledge and experience in maintaining the health of their people and their land. The Nipei Garden of Medicines is contributing to this effort. “Nipei” is the Yawanawá word for the Rainforest’s healing plants. The Nipei Garden of Medicines gathers the traditional healing plants of the forest into one accessible garden. This garden provides a learning center where the few remaining elders work with the new generation of students, teaching about the healing plants and traditional treatments.
Yawanawá stewardship by the numbers
The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and home to thousands of Indigenous people
Covering over 5.5 million square kilometres, it spans 9 countries in total: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The Amazon Rainforest moderates local and global weather patterns releasing approximately 20 billion tons of moisture into the atmosphere daily.
One-quarter of all medicinal plants, many from the Amazon, are derived from tropical forests. Many medicinal plants of the Amazon Rainforest have not been documented yet. For the past 10 years, a new species has been discovered every 3 days in the Amazon. It is home to approximately 40,000 plant species and 1,300 bird species and counting.
The Nipei Garden
Donate to support the Indigenous-led project to provide students a traditional education, led by Yawanawa elders.
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On behalf of our elders, our children, our youth, on behalf of all the Yawanawá, OUR GRATITUDE!
Chief Naiweni
Leader of Mutum village, Acre, Brazil