The Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon (ICAA) is a five year program (2006-2011) that brings together the efforts of 20 public and private organizations working in the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, with the goal of building constituencies and agreements which promote the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity and environmental services of the region

The Initiative is sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and was designed through an extensive consultation process involving over 200 representatives of regional organizations

• What benefits will the project bring?

Local: The program will improve communities’ quality of life by forming and strengthening constituencies and promoting profitable income-generating alternatives that support conservation. Additionally, efforts toward more decentralized decision-making processes will empower local governments and institutions.

National: It will contribute to sustainable development and conservation goals, thus leading to increased economic and social well-being through the reduction of poverty, the improvement of land use management, and the mitigation of cultural and environmental impacts on native populations.

Andean Amazon: It will promote a regional vision of conservation which is able to address the growing array of challenges and threats to biodiversity. It will also support the continuation of the natural processes of the area, preserve biodiversity, and maintain the environmental services the basin provides to the region and the rest of the world, such as: water collection, erosion control, carbon capture and climate regulation, medical, nutritional, industrial resources, and more.