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ECUADOR 2001 Annual Report Contents

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Introducing Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity

Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity is a nonprofit organization working in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Andes, whose intention is to strengthen the relationship between plants and people, protect fragile ecosystems, and conserve ancient cultures and their knowledge of plants. Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity's conservation strategy involves working at the ground level, protecting the rainforest, creating ethnobotanical gardens, holding workshops with indigenous ethnic minorities, rural communities and inner city kids, and producing practical educational materials. Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity was founded in 1994 by Ecuadorian-American ethnobotanist Jonathon S. Miller-Weisberger, who has worked in the Upper Amazon since 1990.

Mount Cotopaxi, Ecuadorian Andes

Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity's work is a practical, ground-level, multi-disciplinary process. Our network includes a vast array of friends who share a common vision. We have built alliances among six distinct ethnic minorities, including many living in remote regions of the Upper Amazon, and we have the social and political infrastructure capable of setting into action a wide array of projects which reach thousands of forest people.

We hope our work will inspire people for many generations to protect the forest, to rediscover the value of traditional ways and the useful plants that surround us, and to support the re-awakening of humanity's harmonious relationship with nature.

Council for Cultural and Biological Diversity is a project of the Living Bridges Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Aptos, California, and we work in Ecuador with political and logistical support from UTEPA (The Technical Advisory of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Ecological Development of the Amazon and Awá Regions).