Putumayo-Içá Biocultural Corridor

The Putumayo–Içá River originates in the Colombian Andes and winds its way through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Along the way, it forms natural borders, between Peru and Colombia, and across much of the Ecuador–Colombia frontier. Remarkably, the Putumayo is one of the few Amazonian basins free from dams, ensuring that the river’s flow and the life it sustains remains uninterrupted.

One of the Most Diverse Places on Earth

The basin is a global treasure trove of biodiversity. It ranks among the world’s richest regions for birds, bats, frogs, freshwater fish, trees, and butterflies. It is also home to around 19 distinct Indigenous groups, whose cultural and ecological knowledge is deeply interwoven with the forests and rivers. Today, nearly 46.5% of the corridor is recognized Indigenous territory, 23.5% is protected as conservation land, and another 6% is under proposal—a landscape where cultural and biological diversity thrive together.

Proportion of Indigenous territories, Proposed and Current Protected Areas, and Other Territories within the Putumayo-Içá Biocultural Corridor

Urgency and Challenges

Despite its promise, the corridor faces growing threats: illegal deforestation, gold mining, overharvesting of fish, and large-scale development projects that are poorly suited to this fragile environment. The Andes–Amazon Program and its partners have been committed to addressing these pressures by supporting Indigenous leadership, generating scientific and cultural knowledge, and securing decision-making power for local communities.

The Keller Science Action Center has been committed to ensuring the region's long-term persistence by supporting information sharing to collectively find opportunities and threats. The intent was to align various actors living in and impacting the watersheds and bring the basin's neighboring countries together for culturally relevant and nature-based conservation actions.

Knowledge and Encounters

Since 2001, the Field Museum has conducted nine Rapid Inventories within the Putumayo–Içá basin (most recently RI33) and two additional inventories near the basin. These expeditions, designed to quickly document biodiversity and cultural values, have directly contributed to creating six protected landscapes: two national parks, three regional conservation areas, and three Indigenous reserves. Building on this foundation, the Andes–Amazon Program convened a series of Encounters between 2017 and 2022, in Iquitos, Leticia, Tarapacá, and Santo Antônio do Içá. These gatherings unite Indigenous leaders, NGOs, scientists, and government agencies to imagine and defend extensive, connected conservation landscapes across the basin.