Manuela Garcia Quezada

Founded Peru's first indigenous-led environmental organization to protect Amazonian biodiversity

Amazonian Roots

Manuela Garcia Quezada (1925-2001) was a Quechua woman from the Peruvian Amazon who witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of rubber barons and logging companies on her community's ancestral lands. After attending a clandestine environmental conference in 1953, she returned home determined to create a movement rooted in indigenous knowledge.

Organizational Innovation

In 1962, she established Centro de Estudios Biodiversidad Indigena (CEBI), the first organization led by Amazonian indigenous people to advocate for environmental conservation. CEBI developed participatory mapping techniques that combined GPS technology with traditional ecological knowledge, creating the first accurate biodiversity maps of the Peruvian Amazon.

Global Impact

Her work inspired the creation of Peru's first national parks in indigenous territories and influenced the UN's 1972 Stockholm Declaration. The CEBI Library now houses over 10,000 documents on indigenous environmental practices. Modern conservation groups like the Amazon Conservation Association credit her with pioneering the concept of 'biocultural heritage.'