It started with a journey. In 1990, Angelika Raimann traveled to the Amazon region of Ecuador — and never truly left. What she found there was not just a landscape of breathtaking beauty, but a forest under threat, a community in need, and a purpose she couldn’t ignore.
A year later, she made it permanent. And when Christine and Siegfried von Steiger came to visit, something extraordinary happened: four people looked at a disappearing rainforest and decided, quietly but firmly, that they would not look away.
In 1993, the first 39 hectares were purchased. It was a small patch of earth by any measure — but it was the seed of something that would grow far beyond what any of them could have imagined.
By 1994, the SelvaViva Rainforest Conservation Cooperative was officially registered in Switzerland, the first 200 hectares had been secured, and a state-recognized wildlife rescue center — amaZOOnico — had opened its doors. The forest was no longer just a dream. It was a project. A commitment. A home.
Over the decades that followed, SelvaViva grew — not just in hectares, but in meaning. A school was founded for local children. An ecotourism project gave the Kichwa community a sustainable source of income. And in 1998, the Ecuadorian government officially recognized Selva Viva as a protected forest — a landmark moment for everyone who had poured their heart into this land.
The road was not without loss. Angelika died in a traffic accident in 2011. Siegfried passed unexpectedly in 2021. These were not just organizational setbacks — they were the loss of visionaries, of friends, of people who believed deeply that the rainforest was worth fighting for.
But the mission endured. It always does, when roots run deep enough.
Today, SelvaViva protects approximately 1,700 hectares of primary rainforest in the Napo Canton of Ecuador. Three forest rangers walk those paths every day, watching over trees that have stood for centuries and wildlife that depends on every one of them. The land is purchased exclusively from colonists — never from indigenous peoples — and the rights and cultures of those communities are protected with the same dedication as the forest itself.
Thirty years. One mission. And a rainforest that is still standing because four people refused to give up on it.
This is SelvaViva.
Cooperative and Foundation for the Protection of the Ecuadorian Rainforest.
