Ayni, Regenerative Food Forest in the Amazon

Dear friends and supporters,

We step into the new year with thanks and optimism, wishing you a strong and fulfilling start. Your support fuels our purpose, and we're eager to share the exciting progress we've made during the past months.

Over the years, we have cultivated partnerships with various organizations that share our goals and vision, both locally and internationally, many of them indigenous. We are excited to let you know that we recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation (GTANW). While international law recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to autonomy and their intact integral ancestral territories, unfortunately, Perú has yet to do so. Despite this antiquated Peruvian legislation, the Wampis went ahead, got organized and, as the first indigenous peoples in Peru, auto declared themselves as an indigenous nation in Peru. Our newly established alliance with the GTANW opens doors to a multitude of possibilities and collaborative efforts with the Wampis people.

As the first activity of this agreement with the Wampis Nation, in late October, we welcomed two young Wampis interns, Noe and Leydi, to our Permaculture Center, for a one-month training and knowledge exchange. Our team also guided Noe and Leydi in designing their own projects, for forest regeneration and the strengthening of their culture, which they hope to implement in their communities. We maintain close contact with Leydi and Noe and are looking forward to seeing how they will manage to turn their project ideas into reality.

The recovery of Amazonian traditional knowledge is at the core of our mission, a journey we share not only with local and indigenous communities but also with international visitors. Since our last report we welcomed our firsts trainees and continued to receive volunteers. Breen, from Ireland, became a resident and as such an integral part of our team, after having been a volunteer with us for three months. Long-term volunteers become more involved, and we encourage them to play a more significant role in our projects and the development of our Center.

Our Permaculture Center is not just a demonstration site but also a meeting place where indigenous leaders, interns, students, local families, our team from across Peru, as well as international visitors come together to exchange and appreciate a wide range of diverse experiences. In the end of October, we welcomed the first participants in our new “Traditional Knowledge for Self Sufficiency” course, focusing on Amazonian knowledge skills and offering strategies for creating a sustainable and thriving environment.

Last month, a storm felled some trees in an area of our Permaculture Center. Our team seized this natural process in the Amazon rainforest to establish a new demonstrative agroforestry plot with an emphasis on citrus trees. Adapting to and living in harmony with the Amazonian ecosystem might be challenging, but it also offers great opportunities. At the Chaikuni Institute, we try to turn the challenges into opportunities and solutions. Knowing that supporters like you not only sustain our ongoing efforts but also contribute to our continuous growth, we continue our mission to regenerate the Amazon with great optimism.

With heartfelt gratitude,

The Chaikuni Institute Team

Links:

• Join us as a trainee or volunteer

Dear friends and supporters,

We hope this report from the field finds you well. Since we last wrote to you, we have continued our agroforestry outreach work with Amazonian families and communities.

Our team organized two field visits during the last three months to the Kukama communities in the Marañon to follow up the agroforestry plots of the Kukama women and their families. In addition to supervising the plots, we also provided technical assistance on beekeeping and honey production with Amazonian stingless bees. This topic always generates extra interest, and upon request, we supported several families with expertise and some prefabricated wood boxes for the beehives.

Earlier this year we were approached by the representative regional indigenous organization, ORPIO, with whom we´ve been sporadically collaborating throughout the years, to offer training to ten indigenous representatives from remote communities in the Peru-Brazil border region. In late June, we provided a week-long training on sustainable productive activities which strengthen food sovereignty. Always using as starting point the generally rich forest farming and management knowledge indigenous peoples hold, we offered the participants a deeper look into viable alternatives for food sovereignty and income generation for indigenous communities, with a specific focus on family agroforestry and native beekeeping.

Since the foundation of our organization, we´ve always had a special relationship with the communities that surround our Permaculture Center, whom we´ve been supporting in different ways throughout the years. Over the last couple of years, we´ve continued to support the most dedicated participants, a group of roughly 20 families, in their agroforestry endeavors. Earlier this year we´ve organized several one-day training courses, which continued into the period of this report. In addition, we´ve organized two learning visits for these families to our allies around Iquitos. In august we visited a farm specialized in citrus fruits, which many families integrate into their agroforestry system. In September, we invited the villagers to visit the impressive plant nursery and family farm of Pedro - a close friend and collaborator of Chaikuni - which produces an abundance of different fruit varieties within integral Amazonian agroforestry systems.

These visits were inspiring, not only for the villagers who already started to apply much of the learned lessons in their own plots, but also for us at Chaikuni. Some of the learnings helped strengthen our own work with our plant nursery, which has grown a lot over the last few months, with the intention to keep providing seedlings and plants to our allies and their family farms.

Finally, we´d like to transmit the gratitude from our team and our allies for your continued support, without which we cannot do what we do. We will also be honest with you: to be able to continue our outreach work and respond to the increasing requests from the communities, we need to step up our fundraising. We will put a lot of energy into the upcoming Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign on GlobalGiving, on November 28^th, and hope that you can help us spread the word. If you are in a position to donate or know someone who can, please do so. We are immensely grateful for any kind of support.

Warm regards from the Peruvian Amazon,

The Chaikuni Team