Our Background

Founded in 1980, Amaterra began as a small group of dedicated environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts, and educators whose passion for nature-based, experiential education, field trips, restoring and preserving nature brough them together. By 1984, that early community had grown into something more purposeful: an endowment-funded, IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to earthcare and conservation. For over 45 years, Amaterra has operated on the belief that “if we act first, support will come of its own accord.” What started as a regional effort in Arizona has since grown into an international body of work spanning the United States, Mexico, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, and Zambia.

Our Mission

Amaterra is organized for environmental research and education in service of “the preservation and improvement of the natural resources of the earth” for present and future generations. In practice, this means funding and supporting community-led conservation, agricultural education, watershed and water security projects, seed banks, and biodiversity initiatives — always working alongside, not above, the rural and Indigenous communities closest to the land.

Our Vision

Amaterra holds that the degradation or improvement of the environment “knows no political boundaries,” and that lasting environmental protection depends on rights-based, locally-led stewardship rather than top-down control. Rooted in its founding credo — an affirmation of “the sanctity and goodness of the Whole Earth… and the One Web of Life in which all are mutually sustained” — Amaterra works toward a future in which the broken is restored, the estranged reconciled, and every member of the Household of the Earth can flourish.