In 1996 the UK-based Forest Peoples' Programme (FPP) and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) in Denmark decided to join forces with indigenous organisations and pool their experiences, in order to analyse different priorities of conservation and indigenous rights movements and promote a dialogue between them. The Inter-Ethnic Development Association for the Perruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) proposed a meeting of conservationists and indigenous peoples in Pucallpa, Peru, and the resulting conference provided the material for this volume.