The Amazon Basin Today
Home to more than 30 million people and 10% of the Earth’s species, the Amazon contains 20% of the world’s fresh water, and serves as an important anchor for South American climate and rainfall.
Photo: Nassif Jordy

But the Amazon could disappear in our lifetimes.
Deforestation and unsustainable development has led to ecosystem stress, increased fire occurrence and a rise in carbon emissions that threaten the lives of communities living in the Amazon first, and the global climate.
NESsT Amazonia
NESsT Amazonia addresses regenerative forest conservation by supporting climate-smart solutions that grow sustainable value chains while improving livelihoods in the Amazon basin. The program incubates and finances small businesses, cooperatives and associations that impact sustainable value chains through bioeconomy approaches including forest management practices, agroforestry, and land restoration.
The program puts a strong emphasis on both environmental conservation and livelihood improvements, with strong community engagement and income generation. The program applies a gender-lens approach to ensure gender equity in the harvesting, management and monitoring of forest resources, as well as in employment creation.
NESsT Amazonia operates in areas of high biodiversity of the rainforest, including protected areas, reserves, and regenerative conservation units, as well as their buffer and transition zones.

Meet Associação Comunitária Agrícola do Rio Urupadi (“ASCAMPA”). a NESsT Amazonia Brazil enterprise that produces the Guaraná seed.
Impact
+31,000
jobs financed
200+
Indigenous communities impacted
65
enterprises financed
750
enterprises mapped
20
value chains evaluated and monitoring
As of May 2025
Importance of Traditional Communities

Photo: Kemito Ene © Daniel Martínez, WWF Peru
Traditional communities - either Indigenous, riverine, or Afro-Brazilians - have been the traditional custodians of the Amazon rainforest. Today they share the forests with a growing number of settlers who seek to tap into the Amazon's considerable natural resources.
NESsT Amazonia supports indigenous enterprises emerging to connect remote areas of the Amazon to sustainable markets, including in eco-tourism, fisheries, superfoods including coffee and cacao, nuts, seeds, and plants for medicinal or cosmetic uses (such as andiroba, muru muru, as well as ucuuba).
While they may not yet meet the traditional standards of investment-readiness and commercial viability, these early-stage Indigenous eco-enterprises have the potential to improve living conditions and regenerative conservation in the Amazon basin at scale.
Strengthening the Ecosystem for Responsible Investment
NESsT Amazonia works in partnership with other organizations to strengthen the social entrepreneurship and impact investing ecosystem in the Amazon basin. We advocate to unlock investment-readiness services and patient capital to build a pipeline of enterprises that can access global markets and investments.
NESsT’s Work with the Amazon Bioeconomy
The Amazon bioeconomy has emerged as a thriving economic sector, drawing in many investors with climate commitments. Yet most definitions of the bioeconomy do not mention the role of Indigenous Peoples in safeguarding the environment and boosting local economies.
Between 2022 and 2023, NESsT conducted 40 face-to-face interviews with smallholder farmers, community members, and leadership teams from ten bioeconomy companies in the NESsT Amazonia portfolio, in order to better understand their financing needs and growth challenges.
Based on these local voices and immersive fieldwork, our publication ‘Unlocking the Potential of the Global Funding Ecosystem to Invest in a Sustainable Amazon Bioeconomy through the Lens of Local Communities’ identifies nine key opportunities in two main areas for public and private sector investors to improve the targeting, accessibility, effectiveness, and efficiency of their investments in the Amazon region.
We invite you to download the study and its recommendations below and join our commitment to create an enabling financial environment that fosters Indigenous entrepreneurship, contributing to a prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive Amazonian bioeconomy, with local and Indigenous communities at its center.
NESsT Amazon Bioeconomy Blog Series
NESsT Amazon Bioeconomy Blog Series
Meet the Amazonia Portfolio
The Associação Bebô Xirin do Bacajá (ABEX) is an Indigenous association that represents the Mebengokrê – Xikrin People of the Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Land (TITB), defending and
AFIMAD (The Indigenous Forestry Association of Madre de Dios) is an association formed by Amazon nut collectors as an alternative solution to the unsustainable
Ally Guayusa is a Kichwa-led association founded in 2018 in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It brings together Indigenous community members who cultivate Amazonian fruits and products using traditional knowledge and organic practices.
Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas Trabajadoras de La Libertad (AMITLI) is a women-led association in the remote rural area of the Vaupés in the Colombian Amazon – a region marked by poverty, lack of infrastructure, and the presence of armed groups.
Social enterprise Apoena was founded in 2021 to improve the safety, efficiency, and quality of cassava processing for local farmers. The social enterprise collaborates closely with cassava flour producers to enhance their working conditions and providing training in organic farming and cassava processing techniques.
Asotexkich is a women-led textile association that brings together 27 artisans – 23 women and four men – from six Kichwa communities. What began as a small initiative in 2016 has grown into a collective effort to support local families, respond to growing demand, and keep cultural heritage alive through traditional clothing.
Founded in 2018, Asozhonm has developed a sustainable tourism model around these natural wonders, offering guided experiences that educate visitors while generating income for over 70 community members—many of whom previously relied on artisanal mining, fishing, or subsistence agriculture.
One of the most renowned social organizations in the Brazilian Amazon, ASPROC supports local riverine communities to produce and sell biodiverse products sourced exclusively from the rainforest, including pirarucu fish, manioc flour, natural rubber, and açaí.
has been supporting small Brazil nut collectors in Beruri, Amazonas since 1970, generating stable income for the isolated communities while respecting their traditional livelihoods and the environment.
ATAIC is an association dedicated to generating and expanding income opportunities for local families by sourcing fruits and Amazon oil seeds.
Bioingredientes Amazónicos (“BioIncos”) sources wild fruits from Indigenous communities in the Amazon Piedmont in Colombia and transforms them into natural oils for use in the cosmetics industry.
Chunaky Baru is an Indigenous-led association dedicated to advancing the livelihoods of artisans in the San José community in the Colombian Amazon.
Cooperativa Mista dos Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais da Calha Norte (“COOPAFLORA”) was created in 2019 to represent collecting families from the various Indigenous, Quilombola, and settler territories in the Calha Norte of the Brazilian Amazon.
Based in Maués, Amazonas, ASCAMPA is a community association that aims to improve the livelihoods of local smallholder farming families, many of whom are of indigenous ancestry. Its main product is the Guaraná seed, a native Amazonian superfood known for its energy-boosting benefits.
an agrotechnology company that seeks to ensure that family farmers have access to the technological tools and assistance they need to produce quality products in a sustainable manner.
Kanuja was established to eliminate intermediary exploitation and ensure fair prices for coffee and cacao growers. Representing 57 communities, Kanuja plays a vital role in the region’s economic development through sustainable agriculture and community-based business.
Kemito Ene is an Indigenous-led cooperative of producers of the Asháninka nationality, from the Ene River basin, dedicated to the sustainable production and marketing of certified organic and fair-trade cacao beans, cacao-derived products, chocolate, and roasted and ground coffee beans.
Kotsimba Eco Lodge SAC is a community-based ecotourism enterprise that offers immersive nature and cultural tourism experiences, from full-day tours to extended packages with overnight stays.
provides digital tools and technical assistance to rural farming families to enhance their agricultural processes and improve their incomes.
Associación Intercomunitaria Painü (“Painü) was founded over ten years ago in Leticia, Amazonas to improve the livelihoods the Indigenous communities of the Yahuarcaca Lakes while protecting their territory and recovering and preserving ancestral knowledge.
Plantus, founded in 2010, develops and manufactures natural and organic inputs for pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industries. Led by an all-women management team, the social enterprise is committed to creating income opportunities for local communities while safeguarding the planet.
The Indigenous-led association, Wayusa Ruku Kawsay, brings together members from 14 Kichwa communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon to grow, process, and sell guayusa (Ilex guayusa) – a sacred Amazonian plant known for its natural energizing effects. The name ‘Ruku Kawsay’ means “ancestral life” in Kichwa, reflecting the association's goals to use this traditional plant to reconnect with and sustain Indigenous knowledge and livelihoods.
Led by 25 Kichwa Indigenous community members, Ñukanchi Sacha Waysa offers cultural and eco-tourism experiences for local, national, and international visitors to the Ecuadorian Amazon, inviting them to step into their way of life. It offers visitors a chance to connect with ancestral Kichwa traditions, learn sustainable farming practices, and help protect the Amazon rainforest.
NESsT Amazonia News
In the first half of 2025, Lirio Fund enterprises Kulkao, Lagunas de los Condores, and Pebani received repeat loans from NESsT, reflecting our continued confidence in the enterprises’ business models and impact. Read to learn more about their continued impact and growth as part of our fund portfolio.
NESsT announces today that it has joined the Sustainable Connections Institute (Conexsus), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in AmazonBeEco, an unprecedented four-year initiative to support the sociobioeconomy in the Pan-Amazon region.
Our work on the ground in Brazil’s Amazon region has consistently shown that increasing women's participation is critical for the socio-bioeconomy to become a robust and sustainable national development strategy.
In this blog, we speak with bioeconomy entrepreneurs to better understand the challenges they face when applying for funding from multiple sources. Read it now to learn how complex application criteria and reporting demands impact their businesses and explore actionable recommendations for how the funding community can help ensure more equitable, inclusive access to financing.
NESsT’s recent study and extensive research identifies that the term ‘bioeconomy’ is often broadly interpreted by bioeconomy funders and global policymakers, sometimes straying far from a vision of environmental stewardship. We interviewed Indigenous leaders and entrepreneurs as part of ongoing efforts to deepen our understanding of their perspectives, vision and expectations of the bioeconomy as not just as an economic model, but as a way of life rooted deeply in ancestral tradition.
At COP16, NESsT reinforced its ongoing commitment to improving access to funding for locally-led bioeconomy initiatives in the Amazon. This work, including its plans to invest $6 million in seed-stage financing through 2025 to support these efforts, was recently featured in Carbon Pulse.
This blog delves into the methodology behind NESsT’s publication to improve the targeting, accessibility, efficacy, and efficiency of investments in the Amazon bioeconomy; it homes in on NESsT’s firm intention to bring local voices to global discussions around Amazon bioeconomy funding and explores how NESsT anchored the publication in authentic narratives and diverse Amazonian contexts while tailoring the message for the international financing community.
As part of its ongoing commitment to address the pressing challenges faced by entrepreneurs in Latin America, particularly in the Andes-Amazon region, the NESsT Lirio Fund is expanding its reach into Brazil. The fund is investing in small and medium-sized enterprises that create dignified income opportunities and improve local livelihoods while contributing to environmental conservation.
NESsT and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation are partnering to consolidate and scale Indigenous peoples and local community (IPLC) enterprises in the Amazon that contribute to the bioeconomy and conserve the environment.
NESsT’s extensive one-year research reveals critical insights to drive better-targeted investments for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.