One Amazon: How the integration of Indigenous and Western knowledge strengthened evidence for new public policies

Nearly 1.5 million Indigenous people, comprising about 385 distinct groups, call the Amazon home. Increasingly threatened by deforestation, resource extraction and urbanization, Amazonian Indigenous peoples face mounting pressures on their territories, livelihoods and cultural survival.  

Increasingly, Amazonian peoples must also grapple with new disease outbreaks and epidemics emerging from human-animal-environment interactions, a challenge that is compounded by food insecurity and factors that make Indigenous populations more vulnerable to disease.  

From pandemic response to resilience

When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened their communities, Amazonian Indigenous peoples responded — and demonstrated their resilience. While overloaded public health systems faltered, many communities came together andused traditional health knowledge to contain the epidemic and care for the ill. 

These responses informed an IDRC-funded project that examined how Indigenous and Western knowledge can support recovery and resilience. Under the Collaborative One Health Research Initiative on Epidemics (COHRIE), researchers documented the risk, vulnerability and agency of Amazonian Indigenous peoples in the face of emerging zoonotic (animal-to-human transmission) epidemics.  

Bridging the gap between academic and traditional knowledge systems

Led by the Instituto del Bien Común, the research team worked with 31 Indigenous communities across Colombia, Ecuador and Peru Amazon regions to produce localized evidence to assess One Health threats and the local response and co-develop solutions. The team included eight academic institutions and civil society organizations, together with Indigenous groups: 

• Association of Asháninka Nationalities of the Pichis Valley, Peru 
• Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Ecuador 
• Departmental Coordinator of Social, Environmental and Peasant Organizations of Caquetá, Colombia 
• Shuar Arutam People, Peru  

Each Indigenous community selected Indigenous researchers and knowledge holders to take part in the project as co‑researchers. Together, they shared knowledge on their response to the pandemic and influenced how intercultural health policies are conceived in line with the needs and unique characteristics of Amazonian communities.  

Ancestral and academic knowledge yield sustainable solutions

In Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, project leaders formed Councils of Elders to lead knowledge-exchange processes with local authorities and to mentor new generations of knowledge leaders. The elders received compensation for their participation in the project, equivalent to a university professor’s rate per teaching hour. This decision represented a key innovation: recognizing traditional and ancestral knowledge on equal footing with academic knowledge and opening pathways toward culturally relevant, sustainable solutions. 

• define intervention strategies 
• produce and discuss research results 
• guide and implement training and advocacy work 

Findings: Ancestral knowledge leads to effective pandemic response

The project found that Amazonian Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities responded effectively to the pandemic by strengthening community organization, protecting food sources and caring for the ill. The communities’ sovereignty over their hunting territories ensured the availability of primary food sources and prevented community members from having to travel to urban markets, where they might be exposed to the COVID-19 virus.  

Ancestral knowledge was essential to the use of medicinal plants for treatment, which contributed to a low COVID‑19 mortality rate among them. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, the communities with the highest number of COVID‑19 cases per capita during the pandemic were Washintza, with 76 infections among 105 residents (72%), and Awenkaro, with 19 infections among 25 residents (76%). Despite the high infection rates, very few people died. 

The findings show that, during outbreaks and epidemics, community knowledge and responses should be key in every response, which can help build sustainable healthcare alternatives and reduce health inequities. Effective responses require collective strategies grounded in local strengths and in the intrinsic value of ancestral knowledge that recognizes the interconnectedness of life.  

Results: One Amazon supports policy changes for Indigenous health

Evidence from the One Amazon project, along with high-level discussions with government, were instrumental in the design of Colombia’s Indigenous Intercultural Health System (SISPI). Adopted as national public policy under Decree Law 480, it guarantees Indigenous peoples’ autonomy over their health systems, cultural identity and fundamental right to health. The policy combines ancestral knowledge with the national health system, strengthening self‑governance and comprehensive health care.  

In Ecuador, the collaborative approach used in this project led to change in government policies related to ancestral health knowledge and practices based on community proposals. The information, data and technologies gathered and used for the project will continue to serve as tools to strengthen elders’ knowledge and territorial governance.  

Knowledge co-production leads to trust and long-term collaboration

The project established relationships of trust and exchange that integrated both Western and traditional knowledge systems in the Amazonian pandemic response. Project meetings, discussion groups, visits and exchanges allowed collaboration across territories and communities.

These results were made possible thanks to the empowerment of Indigenous researchers, which enabled meaningful and reciprocal exchanges. The process encouraged active participation in the research and fostered their self-recognition as Indigenous researchers. 

Why the research matters

The findings from the One Amazon project provide new scientific and social knowledge to rethink how health, food and territorial sovereignty and development models are interlinked and understood in the Amazon. This, in turn, contributes to the evolving field of One Health.  

One Amazon demonstrates the unique value of balancing Western and traditional knowledge systems and highlights the power of evidence informed decision-making. These lessons reflect IDRC’s ongoing commitment to strengthening locally led research and promoting inclusive, evidence-based public policies grounded in the diversity of knowledge systems. They are powerful reminders of how collaboration and knowledge mobilization can help shape a more just and sustainable future.