How Indigenous Women Are Protecting Jaguars, Turtles, and Forests Across Latin America
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📰 The quick summary: Indigenous women in Ecuador, Mexico, and Bolivia are combining ancestral knowledge with community science to protect jaguars, turtles, and native forests, delivering real conservation results on the ground.
📈 One key stat: Over 1.7 million kewiña trees have been planted in Bolivia’s Parque Nacional Tunari over six years, with survival rates above 80% in 2025, helping protect water security for the city of Cochabamba.
💬 One key quote: “I went up and got to know the forest, and now I like coming,” said Elena, a wildlife monitor working with camera traps in the forests of La Chinantla, Oaxaca.
1️⃣ The big picture: Across Latin America, Indigenous women are quietly leading some of the most effective conservation work happening today. In Ecuador, Siekopai women known as the Tari Nomiowa’i helped return 208 charapa turtles to the Aguarico River during the 2025 to 2026 season. In Oaxaca, Chinantec monitors hike up to 10 hours through tropical forest to check camera traps that have recorded at least 24 mammal species, including jaguars and pumas. In Bolivia, Quechua women are restoring high Andean forests by planting native kewiña trees that help protect water sources for entire cities. These efforts blend deep local knowledge with community science, proving that conservation grounded in lived experience can produce lasting, measurable results.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: Camera trap images of jaguars, pumas, and ocelots give communities concrete evidence of what lives in their forests and a stronger foundation to protect those spaces long term. Returning 208 charapa turtle hatchlings to the Aguarico River in a single season shows how patient, hands on local care can help recover vulnerable freshwater species. Planting more than 1.7 million kewiña trees with survival rates above 80% demonstrates that community led reforestation can work at real scale in challenging mountain environments. Beyond the numbers, seeing women lead conservation work changes who gets to make decisions about land and territory, and gives younger generations a visible model to follow. These projects also show that climate resilience does not only come from top down policy but from people who know the river, the forest, and the soil by heart.
3️⃣ What’s next: Camera trap programs need continued funding for equipment like batteries and maintenance to keep generating wildlife data communities can act on. Turtle protection efforts depend on securing safe nesting sites along river beaches that face ongoing pressure from human activity. Tree nurseries in Bolivia need long term support, including water, tools, and stable funding, to sustain reforestation at the scale already achieved.
Read the full story here: Ecoticias – In Oaxaca, some women walk up to 10 hours through the jungle to check camera traps that have captured images of jaguars, pumas, ocelots, and 24 other species of mammals
