Living School of the Amazon

Preparing Future Forest Guardians: Living School of the Amazon (EVA)

Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance’s Living School of the Amazon (EVA) is a space for teaching and learning that seeks to advance a multicultural, bilingual, environmental, and political education for the future young leaders of the 23 Indigenous nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Amazonian youth face various challenges, ranging from low education levels to the growing impact on their ways of life and livelihoods. Additionally, with the advance of globalization, there is a loss of cultural values, language, and traditional ways of life, which poses a significant risk to the sustainability of our biome.

In response to this situation, EVA promotes a holistic and comprehensive multicultural education program aimed at providing knowledge and building capacities. This approach integrates ancestral wisdom with contemporary knowledge through the development of 9 theoretical and practical study modules.

Photo Caption: EVA’s 2025 Cohort during graduation ceremony. EVA has graduated 107 Indigenous youth in a 960-hour Indigenous and territorial leadership course.

Image Credit: Fabricio Lopez,