Together with the Indigenous community of Monte Carmelo, we are building a communal center and botanical garden, in order to safeguard valuable and unique indigenous knowledge and biodiversity that otherwise would be lost. This center provides a safe haven for knowledge, objects and plants and serves as a learning space and focal point of conservation of the surrounding 20,000 ha of community forest. It is part of a larger project aimed to conserve Monte Carmelo's natural and cultural heritage.
The Machinguenga community of Monte Carmelo is guardian of 20K hectares of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. They have lived in harmony and protected the environment for many generations thanks to knowledge that is currently only held by a few elderly villagers. This unique knowledge will be lost forever once these people are gone. This will lead to the vanishing of deep understanding of medicinal plants, the functioning of the forest, language, arts & crafts, textiles, and ancestral traditions.
By creating a Communal Interpretation Center, located in the village's community building, the community of Monte Carmelo will have the opportunity to record, store, access and interact with the knowledge physically and digitally. Off-grid and solar-powered, it will host displays, projectors, a herbarium, seed collection, an audiovisual databank and library. The centre will serve as an interactive classroom for local children and youth and will welcome visitors from elsewhere to learn and study.
This project will help the Machiguenga people to conserve their wisdom for generations to come. By doing so, they preserve the necessary tools to protect their forest as a sanctuary in this highly bio-diverse region and help the Amazon rain forest to fulfill its function as lungs of the world. Furthermore, we intend to make these people proud again about their unique culture and the role they play in protecting the planet's biodiversity.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
