Indira Huaccho

A Quechua indigenous leader revitalizing ancestral knowledge to protect the Peruvian Amazon

Indira Huaccho (b. 1978) is a visionary advocate for Amazonian conservation and indigenous rights from Peru's San Martín region. As founder of CEDIB (Center for Documentation and Information of Bolivia), she developed the "Guardians of the Forest" program training over 500 Quechua and Asháninka youth in traditional agroforestry techniques. Her 2016 initiative Pachamama Guardian Network now protects 200,000 hectares of ancestral territories from illegal logging.

Huaccho's groundbreaking work combines ancestral wisdom with modern technology - her community mapping projects use GPS to document sacred sites, which were critical in stopping a $2 billion hydroelectric project in 2020. Her TEDx talk "The Forest Speaks Through Our Ancestors" has become a cornerstone of indigenous education programs.

Her collaboration with UNESCO led to the Sacred Valley of the Incas being expanded to include 12 new cultural heritage sites. Huaccho's 2021 report "Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Climate Action" is now part of UN Climate Change conferences. Despite receiving death threats from illegal loggers, she established the Amazon Defenders Fund, which has supported over 800 land rights cases since 2018.