What do rainforests, local village traditions, and high cuisine have in common?

Chefs and other creative thinkers are planting the seeds of a “Rainforest to Table” movement that combines food production and forest protection – saving the Amazon’s forests and nourishing its people.

Latin American chefs and non-profit organizations, including Forest Trends and Canopy Bridge, are exploring new ways to bring the Amazon’s vast pantry of healthy ingredients and traditional cuisines to tables in indigenous villages and big cities, alike. Their objective? Empower local communities – particularly indigenous peoples living in remote areas – by expanding opportunities for them to earn income through sustainable agriculture and forest conservation.

Chefs at standout Latin American restaurants – several, like ámaZ, ranked as among the best in the world – are on the leading edge of a campaign to bring the Rainforest to Table concept into the mainstream. Their hope is that by incorporating Amazon ingredients into their offerings, they can redefine national food cultures and support local community producers throughout the region.

Food and forests are closely linked, but in the era of industrial agriculture, gains in food production often end in forest destruction – stripping the planet of its best natural defense against global climate change. Nowhere is this conflict more visible than in tropical forests, where we are losing the equivalent of five football fields of forest every minute to commercial agricultural development.

In the Brazilian Amazon, where soy production and cattle ranching have historically been the primary drivers of forest clearing, a staggering 90 percent of deforestation recorded from 2000 to 2012 was illegal, according to research. Governments and companies have since taken bold steps to turn the tide, but even now, those successes remain tenuous.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to find new ways to protect the Amazon and its inhabitants, especially now as the region’s carbon-trapping forests become an ever-more indispensable asset in the battle against climate change. What better way to carry the message than through food, in the process showing the world that forests conservation and food production can work in tandem to achieve common goals.