Archive

  1. Groundswell International

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    Groundswell International was founded in 2009 by representatives all over the world, who came together to create a partnership that draws on decades of collaboration and experience of developing effective approaches for strengthening community-led social change in Africa, the Americas and Asia.

    As stated in Groundswell’s book ‘Fertile Ground: Scaling AE [Agroecology] from the Ground Up’, “There are about 2.5 billion people in the world, on 500 million farms, involved with smallholder family agriculture and food production. Their creative capacity to farm productively and sustainable with nature, instead of against it, is perhaps the most powerful force that can be unleashed to overcome the interlinking challenges of hunger, poverty, climate change, and environmental degradation.”

    Groundswell joined forces around the mission of strengthening communities to build healthy farming and food systems from the ground up, while contributing to the growing global agroecology and food sovereignty movement.

    It strengthens the capacity and effectiveness of local partner organisations, which in turn empower communities, farmers, and indigenous organisations to lead social change. It does this via various means, including:

    • Collaborative design processes for programmes
    • Facilitation of reciprocal learning between partners and allies
    • Support for technical and methodological training

    In 2021 Groundswell provided $1,541,000 to partner organisations, contributing to a total of over $13,727,000 distributed to partner programs since 2009.

    Its work not only regenerates land impacted by climate change, but also creates economic benefits for those involved, improves health and nutrition, and reduces incentives for migration with a focus on gender equity.

  2. Organización Waorani de Pastaza (OWAP)

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    The Waorani Organization of Pastaza (OWAP) unites 30 Indigenous communities of the Waorani territory of Pastaza in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

    Under the leadership of internationally recognised Waorani activist Nemonte Nenquimo, in 2018 OWAP stepped into action following the Ecuadorian government’s announcement to auction a new oil concession covering more than 200,000 hectares of Waorani territory. OWAP’s global campaign and legal battle resulted in a historic legal victory against the Ecuadorian government, protecting ancestral territory and setting an important legal precedent in the region.

    Today, OWAP and its majority female leadership work to advance the rights of the Waorani people, strengthen community resiliency, and protect more than 230,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest threatened by deforestation and resource extraction.

    The organization works directly with Waorani communities to:

    • Revitalise ancestral cultures and empower young leaders through a novel intercultural education program.
    • Advance and uphold Indigenous rights to protect forests through litigation and grassroots organizing.
    • Build a sustainable, non-extractive future in the Amazon by strengthening local governance systems, promoting food sovereignty, and supporting women-led economic alternatives to resource extraction.

  3. Ashiniawka – Sapara Women’s Association

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    Ashiniawka – Asociación de Mujeres Sapara (Sapara Women’s Association) is an association of indigenous Sapara women in Ecuador. It has been working to defend the Amazon, and the rights of indigenous peoples and women, for more than ten years.

    Today only 500 Sapara live in a territory of more than 360,350 hectares and only three people guard the language. The Sapara people conserve a highly diverse natural heritage and their lands form a natural border with the territories of the Indigenous Peoples in Isolation.

    The association also ensures the well-being of communities and respect for women’s rights. The lack of participation of women in political spaces and the advancement of the extractive industry were two of the main reasons why Ashiniawka was founded.

    Ashiniawka and its founding partners, especially its president Gloria Ushigua, are an international example of what it means to be guardians of the Amazon forest, stopping the advance of oil companies and promoting alternative initiatives to extractivism.

    They also work on a practical level using agroecology and permaculture techniques to restore degraded land.

    The organisation has also established itself as a safe haven for women to report cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Ashiniawka helps women and children experiencing domestic violence find medical help and take legal action.

  4. Organización Waorani de Pastaza (OWAP)

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    The Waorani Organization of Pastaza (OWAP) unites 30 Indigenous communities of the Waorani territory of Pastaza in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

    Under the leadership of internationally recognised Waorani activist Nemonte Nenquimo, in 2018 OWAP stepped into action following the Ecuadorian government’s announcement to auction a new oil concession covering more than 200,000 hectares of Waorani territory. OWAP’s global campaign and legal battle resulted in a historic legal victory against the Ecuadorian government, protecting ancestral territory and setting an important legal precedent in the region.

    Today, OWAP and its majority female leadership work to advance the rights of the Waorani people, strengthen community resiliency, and protect more than 230,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest threatened by deforestation and resource extraction.

    The organization works directly with Waorani communities to:

    • Revitalise ancestral cultures and empower young leaders through a novel intercultural education program.
    • Advance and uphold Indigenous rights to protect forests through litigation and grassroots organizing.
    • Build a sustainable, non-extractive future in the Amazon by strengthening local governance systems, promoting food sovereignty, and supporting women-led economic alternatives to resource extraction.

  5. Sacha Kuyrana Maltakuna – Young Kichwa Defenders of the Forest

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    Sachawaysa, Ecuador is in a beautiful hilly location, where the Amazon forest meets the foothills of the Andes at 900 meters elevation. The community has self-organized to work honestly, proactively, and transparently to regenerate Kichwa culture, and forests, which were almost destroyed by the Spanish settlement in the region which brought hostile attitudes and actions towards Kichwa people, their customs and regional rainforests.

    Sacha Kuyrana Maltakuna – Young Kichwa Defenders of the Forest plan to buy a one hectare property, build a simple office with local materials, and map, design, and plant an ancestral home garden with dozens of fruit, nut, palm, medicinal, and hardwoods, including traditional species which help to improve soils, and short cycle plants and fungi, such as edible mushrooms collected from the forest. They will develop an online Kichwa vegetarian recipe book, full of traditional foods and recipes, to share with young people in the region.

    Young people will organise and participate in projects, and will ask the grandparents (elders) for advice on values, on projects and how to successfully extend their work to benefit surrounding communities.

  6. Fundación Pachamama

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    Fundación Pachamama is a NGO with more than 23 years of experience working with the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon region. Its work aims to strengthen indigenous organizations, defend indigenous peoples’ land rights and promote alternative development models.

    In partnership with the Indigenous Nations of the Amazon rainforest, they have protected millions of acres of pristine rainforest from oil and other extractive industries.

    Fundación Pachamama is promoting a new Initiative called the Amazon Sacred Headwaters (ASHI). ASHI aims to permanently protect 86+ million acres of tropical rainforests in the headwaters of the Amazon River–the Napo and Marañon Basins of Ecuador and Peru.

    ASHI will convene indigenous peoples, civil society and governments to establish a bi-national protected region, off-limits to industrial scale resource extraction and governed in accordance with traditional indigenous principles. This is the first holistic planning effort to address the key issues affecting such a large bioregion in the Amazon Basin.

  7. YAKUM

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    YAKUM works to regenerate indigenous forest and build food sovereignty, through reforestation of degraded land with carefully selected native tree species which provide a high diversity and volume of highly nutritious food for the communities.

    They work closely in the field with indigenous youth and women´s groups, to collect seeds and plant trees of important species in Cofan, Siekopai, Shuar and Kichwa territories.

    YAKUM has an experienced, committed, knowledgeable and dynamic core staff who live and breathe the work. They beat many other reforestation projects through biodiversity – over 150 different tree species, selected to revitalise indigenous knowledge, nutrition, health and livelihoods.

    Amazonian fruits and nuts, like Ungurahua, Morete and Wachanzo, are critically important to improve indigenous nutrition and restore food sovereignty. YAKUM also plants endangered and scarce trees over-harvested either for fine timbers, like mahogany, or for traditional medicines made from their bark or roots. With women´s groups they are also planting trees that produce seeds and fibres, used to make handicraft goods for local use and sale.

    YAKUM´s work is co-planned with the communities, and is based around respect, commitment, trust and a mutual passion for plant diversity.

     

  8. Ripanu

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    Em agosto de 2018, o fundador da Ripanu conduziu uma investigação sobre os Sápara e como resistiam à exploração do petróleo. Uma das comunidades visitadas, Ripanu, estava interessada em criar um projeto de turismo ecológico como forma de travar a exploração de petróleo nas suas terras.

    A ideia passava por um centro dedicado à conservação da selva amazónica, à meditação, e à cura e rejuvenescimento mental e espiritual dos visitantes usando técnicas ancestrais e medicinas naturais.

    O centro consistiria em cinco cabanas com capacidade para 20 pessoas no total. Seria construído em território dos Sápara, na parte equatorial da Amazónia, e seria promovido online, com um site, vídeos, fotos e mensagens dos Ripanu convidando gente de todo o mundo a curar-se, rejuvenescer-se e a sonhar no meio da selva dos Sápara.

    Os Sápara são uma comunidade indígena etnolinguística nativa da Amazónia, na fronteira entre o Equador e o Perú. Nas últimas décadas, estão em risco de desaparecer apesar da sua língua e da sua cultura fazerem parte do Património Imaterial da Humanidade da UNESCO.

    Apenas quatro anciãos falam o idioma dos Sápara. Este projeto procura defender as terras ancestrais da indústria do petróleo, regenerar a cultura dos Sápara e viver em paz e harmonia com o habitat natural.

     

  9. Alianza Ceibo

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    Alianza Ceibo (Ceibo Alliance) is comprised of members from four indigenous nations in the western Amazon that are together building a holistic movement to prevent the destruction of their cultures and rainforest territories.

    The Alliance was created in 2014 in response to oil fields polluting local water sources. In the process of building rainwater catchment systems (to store water for irrigation and other uses), they learned of common threats facing them all.

    Believing that they are stronger together, Alianza Ceibo started a movement to:

    • Empower communities to defend their territories through land patrols, high-tech monitoring and mapping, legal strategies and media campaigns;
    • Connect youth with their cultural roots, leadership opportunities and each other so they value their identity and their forest and fight to protect it. Indigenous-made films, medicinal plant gardens and ceremonial spaces have been created as part of this work;
    • Create solutions to the destruction of local forests, including building solar energy in communities and the creation of women-led micro-enterprises to promote sustainable economic alternatives to rainforest destruction while preserving endangered food crops and medicinal plants.

  10. YAKUM

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    In 2016, the founder of YAKUM went to Ecuador to learn about deforestation and agroforestry. In 2017 he returned and found some local ethnobotanical experts, with whom he visited many indigenous communities.

    The Shuars in particular liked the idea of regenerating pasture-land with the forgotten foods and medicines of their forefathers and mothers, and over six months, they set up 15 small sites in ten Amazon communities, using over 100 culturally important species.

    They stayed with many families and talked for hours about needs, pressures, deforestation and cultural erosion. They often struck a chord when talking about food culture, nutrition and forest loss. They built a nursery in one community and it was incredibly successful. They built a couple more, and then a couple more. YAKUM now works with hundreds of community members in ten communities.

    YAKUM wishes to bring together core members of different communities to deliver permaculture and agroforestry workshops, ensuring that it not only “reforests” with them but regenerates, ensuring high yields, less pests and rich soil.

    The project’s vision is for these communities to become centres of excellence in Amazon agroforestry and conservation and lead the projects themselves, through capacity building and youth leadership development.

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