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Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia

This land will be protected under a rights-of-nature legal structure, such that the land is a legal subject with rights to be protected and the Indigenous Embera Chami people are its legal guardians.
Size of Purchase: 80 ha

Raised

$92,444
Photo of a tall tree growing above the tree canopy, against the dark outline of a mountain, shrouded in clouds, with two patches of sunlight emerging just above the mountain in the distance, in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Headshot of an Indigenous Embera Chami man, smiling and wearing traditional feathered headgear with a red feather pierced through his nose in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Camera-trap photo of a jaguar walking towards it in the forest near Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Harpy Eagle in Putumayo Amazon, Colombia
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Photo of a monkey on a thin branch high in a tree in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Photo of a frog with a yellow and orange belly hanging onto a tree branch with its eyes closed in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Two Indigenous men smiling, wearing traditional beaded necklaces with large curved claws or teeth, in front of a blurred jungle background.
Aerial photo of a rushing river with forest on either side in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Photo of a waterfall and a pool in the forest of Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Photo of a man in a purple shirt with a tan backpack holding a camera with a long lens in the forest of Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia. On the tree behind him is a sign in Spanish that states that hunting is prohibited.
Photo of a women measuring the diameter of a tree in the forest of Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Photo from the base of a tall tree looking up at its spiky bark and green leaves high up in the canopy.
Photo of a dark green bird with a long thin beak perched on a leafy branch in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
Close-up photo of a tiny frog held gently between two fingers in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.
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The Habitat

The land purchase is a deep jungle plot of pristine primary forest at the border of the Tropical Andean biodiversity hotspot. It is part of the ecological corridor of the Tropical Andean Jaguar (Panthera onca) and among the last rangelands of the Vulnerable Andean Bear (Tremarctos ornatus).

The land is home to an estimated 8,803 endemic species and has at least 20 species that are designated as Endangered or Vulnerable.

Cabildo Pada Kera will be protected under a rights-of-nature legal structure, such that the land is a legal subject with rights to be protected and the Indigenous Embera Chami people are its legal guardians. 

Ecoregion: Northwestern Andean montane forests (NT0145)
Photo of a tall tree growing above the tree canopy, against the dark outline of a mountain, shrouded in clouds, with two patches of sunlight emerging just above the mountain in the distance, in Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia.

Some of the threatened species now protected in Cabildo Pada Kera include:

Local Partner NGO

Logo for nonprofit Empulsive Ink, showing a purple ink splotch with the outline of a person with a halo

Empulsive Ink

Empulsive Ink is a scientific nonprofit applying high-tech to solve hard scientific and social problems.

Status of registration at the national level

501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States (EIN 88-1869344)

Governance and management structure

Empulsive Ink is a very small charitable organization, run by Director Drea Burbank and cofounded by Chris Hope and Michael Nichols. Empulsive Ink is fully subsidized by its for-profit sister company, Savimbo Inc., but is independent of it, with separate accounting and accountability. Savimbo donates the time of its administrative and accounting staff. 

For this project, we are partnered with the Embera Chami, a displaced Indigenous group that has been jaguar-tracking for Savimbo. Charitable projects like this one are initiated and prioritized by the local community in regions where Savimbo works and is based on need. The projects are unrelated to Savimbo’s core operations and benefit the general public in the regions in which Savimbo works, not just Savimbo affiliates.

Photo of a man in a purple shirt with a tan backpack holding a camera with a long lens in the forest of Cabildo Pada Kera, Colombia. On the tree behind him is a sign in Spanish that states that hunting is prohibited.

Conservation Plans

The legal purchase of this land through a rights-of-nature contract will be permanent. The land will be protected and administered autonomously by the currently displaced Indigenous group, the Embera Chami, who can only stay on the land if they honor the contract. Should there be a problem, the land will revert to the taitas, or traditional medicine doctors, as caretakers. 

The land will be deep enough to be self-sustaining from carbon- and biodiversity-credit revenue, and will have a small house and subsistence farm for the 50 tribal members. The farm will be on previously cleared land; they will not be deforesting the land to create the site.

Two Indigenous men smiling, wearing traditional beaded necklaces with large curved claws or teeth, in front of a blurred jungle background.