The Editor's Post: Challenging assumptions, deep in the Amazon forest

Bumping along a potholed road yesterday in a coach heading into Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, I realised that the forest wasn’t at all how I’d imagined it would be. I’d expected dense vegetation dripping with moisture, networks of waterways, swarms of buzzing insects and various terrifying jungle beasts.

As I pressed my phone lens against the window with the record button pressed down, it’s true that I saw a bewildering variety of giant-leaved palms, towering deciduous trees with green, brown and orange foliage, and plants with purple and pink flowers. There were also tranquil river inlets and vultures soaring overhead. But I also realised that there were settlements of homes on stilts, areas covered only with grass and scrub, fields of cows, and expanses of hundreds of skeletal bare tree trunks – not what I was expecting at all.

I’m lucky enough to be in Manaus this week, with our associate editor Anna Patton, to report upon Latimpacto’s fifth annual Impact Minds conference. My coach journey was part of a field trip to visit startup Remata Agroflorestal, whose CEO Eric Brosler has devised a method of planting a variety of species based on regenerative agricultural techniques that he believes can not only help to restore tens of thousands of hectares of destroyed Amazon forest, but also bring sustainable economic development to the forest communities.

I guess that my preconceptions of the Amazon have been formed by nature documentaries, children’s books and NGO campaigns. It was a true privilege to see (a tiny part of) the forest first-hand so that I now understand it better. It was also amazing to walk around Eric’s six-acre test plantation site where papaya, acai, banana and rosewood, among other species, were being cultivated to demonstrate a new future possibility for the forest.

And this challenging of assumptions is exactly what Latimpacto CEO Carolina Suárez wants to happen to the delegates coming to the 2026 event. The team had deliberately chosen Manaus as a place which isn’t on the usual conference circuit and which takes even most Brazilians a real effort to reach. (It’s more than four hours on a plane from São Paulo.) As the conference opened, Anna talked to Carolina and knowledge director Catalina Herrera about why they’d chosen to bring hundreds of impact professionals to the heart of the Amazon this year. We also asked some of the delegates how their visit was influencing their own perspectives on their work. 

In contrast to yesterday’s adventure in the rainforest, on Tuesday, Anna and I visited Teatro Amazonas, the city’s opera house, which was built in the late 19th century when Manaus, rich from the rubber industry, viewed itself as ‘the Paris of the tropics’ – another surprising discovery. And today we were in a conference centre for the first day of the event’s two-day ‘academic agenda’ (the panels, workshops and keynotes). 

It’s now late on Thursday night and in just a few hours our colleague Laura will be at her desk in Liverpool, England, expecting Anna and I to have filed our stories, ready for this newsletter to be sent on Friday morning. A little while later, Anna and I will be back at the conference venue for the final day to report on the conversations as well as delivering a workshop about storytelling in the impact economy. Expect more updates soon.

Thanks for reading!

This week's top stories:

‘Once you’ve travelled to Manaus, you’re committed’ – Latimpacto’s fifth annual conference opens in Brazil’s Amazonian centre

Challenging assumptions: Latimpacto conference delegates rethink scale, systems and strategies for the future

Is investing in mental health an overlooked opportunity?

The Impact World this Week: 11 September 2026

Top image: Latimpacto delegates explore Remata Agroflorestal's plantation in the Amazon.