Faster Than NASA: How Indigenous Brigade Members in Peru Are Using AI to Save the Rainforest

Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon are using artificial intelligence to track wildfires as the peak season for blazes begins.

In early July, the Potsoteni community fire brigade members were alerted to a potential fire by smoke rising into the sky at 1 pm and headed towards the location to try to extinguish the fire. Simultaneously, they used their Paamari Project training and contacted the Central Asháninka de Rio Ene (CARE) technical team who use digital tools to help verify the location of this fire.

Paamari - named after the Asháninka word for fire - is a project by CARE that’s supported by climate charity Cool Earth and designed to blend Indigenous wisdom with cutting-edge satellite technology to prevent and reduce wildfires.

Together, the Paamari protocol and technology worked. By 2:15 pm, Paamari brigade members had prevented an out of control agricultural burning from spreading further.

Their usual software was unable to help them figure out where the blaze had begun so creating a report, essential to help with future tracking and forest protection, was hard. Looking for an alternative source of information, they turned to an artificial intelligence based tool that combines satellite data and an AI algorithm and promises detection of blazes faster than NASA.

In the past, many of these communities tended to view smoke with resignation, not reporting signs of fire because they didn’t expect a response or assistance. That’s now changing. Communities are now seeing that, through Paamari, the alerts they submit are receiving a tangible and timely response.”

 David Torres, Coordinator & Monitoring Specialist, CARE

July marks the start of the peak wildfire season in Peru, where the threat from out-of-control blazes begins to climb with drier conditions and increasing temperatures. However, in recent years, thanks to increased training and organized response from programs such as Paamari, Indigenous people living in areas most at risk from fires have begun to tackle the risk. Now, in 2026, Indigenous people are turning to AI tools to help aid them further this fight.

Through their award-nominated work, they’ve been able to reduce the number of wildfires in their territory to zero in 2025, down from 25 two years prior. Through adding new AI technology on top of their constant training and improving their early-response capacity, it could stay this way.

“One of the key factors behind these positive outcomes is that the Paamari project and this response protocol have been developed by CARE from within its own communities, in a way that respects their governance structures and culture,” said Julio Acosta, Forest Data Manager at Cool Earth. “Any model imposed from the outside, no matter how innovative or successful it may appear, is unlikely to succeed unless communities take ownership of it organically and recognize that it responds to their own realities and needs."