CoAct Database

Acción Andina

Andes Action is a new Latin American-led large-scale restoration initiative, aiming to restore one million hectares of high Andean ecosystems (mostly Polylepis forests) in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile in the next 25 years. Andes Action works with a growing and scalable network on-the-ground conservation/restoration leaders in six countries with proven, effective models to partner with indigenous communities to reforest priority watersheds – mainly for local climate resilience and water security reasons. Based on a model developed in Peru over the last 18 years, Andes Action’s on-the-ground leaders harness ancient Incan traditions in indigenous communities to provide effective restoration: In the spirit of Ayni (reciprocity), communities unite by donating their time to reforest each others’ watersheds, creating a growing, culturally enhanced, cost-effective restoration movement to be replicated and scaled across Latin America. To date, approximately two million native Polylepis trees have been planted, with an additional 500,000 trees per year. The goal is to double tree planting every year to reach 5-10 million trees planted yearly at the end of phase 1 (2019-2024).