Guardians of the forest

Meet the incredible people protecting the Amazon rainforest.

Indigenous people, who live in the Amazon region of South America - in the world's largest remaining rainforest - are devoting their lives to stopping deforestation (people cutting down trees), protecting the vital wildlife that lives there. Indigenous people are the descendants of those who lived somewhere before another culture arrived and took over. There are around 385 different indigenous groups living in the Amazon. One group in Ecuador, called the Shuar, is helping to stop deforestation by sustainably (a way of producing things without damaging the environment) growing traditional crops, such as cacao, which is used to make chocolate, and balsa trees, which grow quickly and are good at taking carbon out of the atmosphere.