On December 11, 2009, CEN partner organization Amazon Association was named Environmentalist of the Year 2009.at the Copenhagen Conference as result of it's role in preventing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly surrounding the community of Xixuau.  The Association played a key role in this year's establishment of the Extractive Reserve Baixo Rio Branco-Rio Jauaperi, which protects thousands of hectors from mining and havesting of trees.

The work of the Amazon Association and the people of the Xixuau prove that a standing forest can worth more than a dead one and that development does not necessarily have to mean the senseless use of natural resources. The model has been created and now we need to expand and replicate it.