Title: Amazonia
Description: From the Introduction: Hundreds of South American organizations are defending the Amazon and its inhabitants, but most do not even know there are people in the North deeply concerned about the issue. Those who do know have their own questions: "How can we get support around the world? Is it true that North American and European organizations get millions of dollars to save the rainforests? How do they spend all that money? Who are the people behind these groups like the Rainforest Action Network? What are other organizations doing in the rest of the Amazon?" This Action Guide was born of the need to address just such questions. It is designed and an organizing tool to help people and groups who are about to plunge into Amazonian work for the first time. The bulk of the guide is a directory of more than 250 organizations who are working on the issue, from the most remote parts of the jungle to the lobbying offices of Washington and London.^

But the Action Guide is more than addresses and fax numbers. Unless the social and political complexities of life in the Amazon are understood, all the international campaigns and good intentions in the world will not keep a single tree standing. This guide, then, spotlights the grassroots movements of Amazon's indigenous peoples, rubber tappers, and other forest dwellers. No other people have worked so hard and as long to defend the forest. No other people understand as well the meaning-and importance-of sustainable development and conservation. With this in mind, the Action Guide staff, for the first time, asked Amazonian grassroots organizations what they wanted the world to know about their goals, strategies, and special needs to make their work more effective.^

The information for more than 100 profiles was compiled from a series of questionnaires and from interviews conducted by Monti Aguirre and Glenn Switkes during their filming of AMAZONIA: Voices from the Rainforest, a documentary for which this publication is intended as a companion guide. Some 150 activist organizations working on Amazonian issues in Latin America, Europe, North America, and in the Asia/Pacific region, as well as resource groups of funders, researchers, and technical specialists responded to similar questionnaires.
Subjects: Societies, Directories, Rain forest ecology, Information services, Rain forests, Environmental conditions
Places: Amazon River Valley