Photo Credits: Wilfredo Martinez/OnePlanet
Meet the Maijuna
We are honored to work alongside the Indigenous Maijuna, one of the smallest and most vulnerable Indigenous Peoples in the Peruvian Amazon. Our collaboration is built on listening, learning, and working together as partners in conservation. The Maijuna’s commitment to protecting their homeland inspires everything we do together.
For more than a decade, our partnership has deepened through time we have spent together in the forest, in their community-led workshops, and through ongoing dialogue. As our field teams learn directly from Maijuna elders, educators, and youth, we gain invaluable insight into what effective stewardship truly means. In return, we help share stories of Maijuna livelihoods, scientific exploration, and conservation leadership with classrooms around the world—building connections that strengthen both their homeland and the communities our educators serve.
Guardians of Nearly a Million Acres
The Maijuna steward nearly one million acres of the Peruvian Amazon—one of the most biologically rich and culturally significant regions on Earth. This landscape is vital for biodiversity, traditional ecological knowledge, and climate resilience.
Today, that forest faces a major threat. A proposed highway would cut through Maijuna territory, opening the region to illegal logging, poaching, and settlement. The consequences would be devastating for both the rainforest and the Maijuna way of life.
Our shared efforts focus on strengthening Maijuna-led conservation, amplifying their story, and supporting the next generation of Indigenous environmental leaders.
Watch
Full-length video available here
Teach: Learning With the Maijuna
In 2015, we began partnering with the Maijuna and the NGO OnePlanet to share the Maijuna story more widely. Through this collaboration, Maijuna community members began leading conservation and sustainability workshops for participants in our field programs—an experience that reshaped how educators understand the Amazon and the people who protect it.
When these educators return home, they bring the Maijuna experience with them. They share real examples of Indigenous leadership and ecological stewardship in their classrooms and communities, helping students connect local learning to global issues. Through inquiry-based lessons, community projects, and investigations inspired by Maijuna perspectives,students learn with the Maijuna—and turn that learning into informed action where they live.
Coming Soon: Meet our Maijuna Faculty
Coming Soon: Maijuna Resource Hub
Activity Guides
Aiming for Sustainability
Interrupted Case Studies
Maijuna Wildlife Management
DataClassroom
Snapshot of Biodiversity
Visit our Resource Bank for more classroom connections, case studies, and resources!
How This Work Supports the Global Biodiversity Framework
Our collaboration with the Maijuna directly supports the goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which calls for coordinated global action to protect nature. Our work aligns with two core areas:
1. Indigenous-Led Conservation (Maijuna)
Indigenous leadership is central to effective, long-term conservation, and the Maijuna offer a powerful example of what this looks like in practice. Maijuna stewardship advances several key GBF targets:
- Target 1: Planning and managing areas to reduce biodiversity loss
- Target 3: Protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 (30×30)
- Target 4: Preventing species decline and safeguarding ecosystems
- Target 22: Upholding the roles, rights, and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples
The Morpho Institute does not plant trees or “save the rainforest.” Instead, we partner with the people who live in close alliance with these forests and aim to protect them for generations to come.
2. Education for Biodiversity (Morpho)
Education is essential to achieving the GBF vision. Targets 12, 15, and especially Target 21 call for expanding environmental literacy, youth engagement, and public understanding.
Our work contributes to these goals through:
- professional development grounded in place-based, inquiry-driven learning
- curriculum that brings Indigenous conservation stories into classrooms
- student projects that build awareness and local action
- connections between U.S. and Peruvian educators, communities, and Maijuna partners
When educators return home inspired by Maijuna leadership, they help their students understand global challenges and see their place in creating solutions.
Together, Maijuna conservation and Morpho education form a bridge between on-the-ground stewardship and global learning.
Take Action
Supporting the Morpho Institute means standing with the Maijuna as they work to protect their land, culture, and future. It also means helping teachers from other parts of the world bring these lessons home—sparking curiosity, building understanding, and inspiring conservation action in their own communities.
Together, we can:
- Strengthen Indigenous-led conservation in the Amazon
- Equip educators to connect students to real-world environmental issues
- Engage communities in both Peru and the U.S. in caring for the forests that sustain us all
Learn how our Climate Action Plan supports Maijuna-led conservation and empowers the teachers who help carry this story forward.
We invite you to join us in this important work. Donate Today!
Photo credit: Christa Dillabaugh