A conservation NGO in the Brazilian Amazon
Replacing extraction with protection in Guajará, Amazonas.
How this came to be
IEUNI — Instituto Estrela Universal — is a Brazilian conservation NGO based in Guajará, Amazonas. The organisation operates three integrated programmes: a conservation reserve of over 24,000 hectares, syntropic agroforestry with farming families in the region, and regenerative tourism delivered through agency partners.
The reserve sits deep in the Juruá river basin — one of the most biodiverse and least-disturbed corners of the Amazon. Yet the land had been designated for agrarian settlement — legally on a path toward clearance. The reserve exists because we chose to intervene.
Between 2023 and 2025, 75 separate landholdings were consolidated into a single reserve, held under private ownership with philanthropic support.
Building an economic model in which the forest is worth more standing than cleared.
André Luis Lima
President and CEO
"The reserve is not an idea — it is over 24,000 hectares of standing forest that we manage every day.
Our work is practical: protect what exists, extend protection to the surrounding community through agroforestry, and build aneconomic model in which the forest is worth more standing than cleared.
The three pillars reinforce each other; none of them works alone. This is a structural argument about what land in the Brazilian Amazon is for."
Our Team
Kristijan Guček
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Rafael Rübenich Lima
Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Miha Šalehar
Head of Regenerative Tourism
Helder Câmara JR.
Head of Ground Operations
Nejc Babič
Global Partnership Manager
Gorazd Skrt
Executive Advisor – International Relations & Partnerships
Douglas Ramos
Operations and Logistics Reserve Coordinator
Alexis Treviso
HR Accounting Legal Coordinator
Partners
Forests4Farming (F4F).
Technical partner on the syntropic agroforestry programme. F4F contributes methodology, training, and field support to the 2026 pilot with farming families in Guajará.
Gama Farmers' Association.
Local agricultural organisation partnering with IEUNI on farmer engagement and on-the-ground coordination for the agroforestry programme in the Gama area.
Credentials
Certificate of Municipal Public Benefit, awarded by the Guajará, Amazonas City Hall
The reserve does not sit within any officially designated indigenous territory.
IEUNI maintains working relationships with the indigenous communities of the Guajará municipality and respects the sovereignty of their lands.
