Conservation that starts with communities.

Uakari Lodge, located within the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, protects the endangered uakari monkey while running a pioneering community-driven ecotourism initiative. Named after the red-faced monkey, the lodge opened in 1998 and is run jointly by Instituto Mamirauá and the reserve’s communities to safeguard the species’ habitat.

Today it is a model of sustainable development, positively impacting 11 local communities and preserving the region’s biodiversity. Ecotourism provides economic and social benefits to community members and empowers local guides to share their deep connection to the forest – fostering pride and purpose in protecting their home.

Home to over 400 bird species and 45 mammal species – including the bald uakari, the black-headed squirrel monkey, the Amazonian manatee and the pink river dolphin – Mamirauá is far more than a biodiversity hotspot.

As the first conservation area in Brazil to integrate sustainable resource management with the involvement of traditional communities, it shows what long-term science and community engagement can achieve. Ribeirinho (riverside) communities take part in data collection and in return develop sustainable hunting and fishing practices.

Instituto Juruá is a Brazilian non-profit dedicated to conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon, particularly in the Juruá River basin and the Mamirauá reserve. It works closely with local communities to manage natural resources, blending scientific research with traditional knowledge.

Its initiatives include the successful recovery of the endangered pirarucu fish and efforts to protect freshwater turtles. By empowering local leadership, Instituto Juruá creates sustainable livelihoods while safeguarding vital ecosystems.

The Movimento de Mulheres das Ilhas de Belém (MMIB) is a women-led movement founded in 1998 that unites women across more than 40 islands around Belém. What began under a tree with a plan to make fruit preserves has grown into a network of women producing priprioca, andiroba and breu branco – ingredients that have found their way into products by the Brazilian beauty brand Natura.

The women also craft bio-jewellery, practise sustainable tourism and protect the forest that has always sustained them. We visited MMIB during COP30 and met Dona Oneca, whose harvest is the largest source of breu for the partnership with Natura.

Dona Nena (Izete Costa) has made chocolate from native cacao since 2006 on the river island of Combu near Belém. She harvests, ferments, roasts and grinds the cacao herself, in standing forest.

Her business, Filha do Combu, gives preference to staff from the island, so the value stays local.

In Mocajuba, Noanny Maia, her sisters and her mother carry on her grandfather’s legacy as the fourth generation. Since 2021, Cacauaré has bought várzea cacao from more than 30 riverine, Indigenous and Quilombola families and turns it into chocolate, ceremonial cacao, jams and nibs.

What was once a discarded by-product now supports local livelihoods, and the business protects more than 500 hectares of native forest.

Warabu is a cocoa company and one of our cocoa partners in the Brazilian Amazon.

Café Apuí, led by Sarah Sampaio, CEO of Amazônia Agroflorestal, is the first 100% organic Robusta coffee cultivated in agroforestry systems in the Brazilian Amazon. In a municipality where cattle ranching devastated the forest for decades, it shows that a different model is not only possible, but good.

In 2026, Ka’a Harmony organised a cupping of Café Apuí at Five Elephant, one of Berlin’s most respected specialty coffee spaces, and supported a business meeting between Café Apuí and 19 Grams.

In partnership with ASSOBIO and the Amazon Rainforest Investor Coalition, Ka’a Harmony facilitated market access for Amazonian bioeconomy products in Berlin during Amazon Week 2026.

The effort connected 32 brands to the German market, engaged around 45 European actors and included tastings at some of Berlin’s most respected specialty stores.

Idesam – Institute for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon – is a Brazilian non-profit organisation based in Manaus and founded in 2004. It works to promote sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in the Amazon.

Through research, innovation and partnerships with local communities, entrepreneurs, businesses and other stakeholders, Idesam strengthens sustainable value chains, supports forest-based businesses and advances an inclusive bioeconomy that values standing forests and the people who protect them.

Concertação pela Amazônia is the most important multi-stakeholder network dedicated to the Amazon’s sustainable future. Ka’a Harmony is a member of its Bioeconomy Working Group.

Lasting change doesn’t happen in isolation – this is one of the networks we joined because it shares our values.