Ayni, Regenerative Food Forest in the Amazon

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Since we last reported to you, we have continued our on-the-ground work to bring chacras integrales – diverse, regenerative and resilient agroforestry systems – to the surrounding communities of our permaculture centre, situated a couple of hours outside of the jungle city Iquitos, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.

Our dedicated permaculture team has been supporting the local farmers that were trained in the permaculture design course (PDC) in May to establish these chacras integrales on their own land. Implementation happens through so called mingas, where, additionally to the Chaikuni team, family and friends of the owner of the land come to lend a hand during a full day of communal labour in the field.

We are currently working with a core group of 10 local farmers, and support every participant with three mingas to help them on their way to establishing their own chacra integral. By the time of writing, and since we last reported to you, we have organized, supported and participated in 13 such communal work days, and 3 more are planned for this year. By now, five of the participants have fully established their agro-forestry plots, and one more will have his chacra integral up and ready by the end of the year. Each chacra being approximately 1 hectare, we will count 5 to 6 hectares of these diverse, productive, regenerative and healthy agroforestry plots.

Additionally, we also held 2 full-day workshops with this core group to refresh the knowledge from the PDC and address questions and issues which the participants experience during the implementation of their chacra. When asked about their experiences so far, one of the participants, a local farmer called Levi, lit up. He told us that while he used to mainly plant yucca and plantain, he has now opted for a much more diverse chacra integral. He recently had his nephews visiting him, and said they were all excited about the various different fruits and products they found growing on Levi´s land, tasting a bit of each.  

At the Chaikuni Institute, we are as excited as Levi to slowly but surely see the fruits of our outreach work. For the next year and a half, we have set ourselves the goal to increase the number of hectares to be turned into chacras integrales to 24, regenerating degraded land, turning it into productive and healthy food forests, producing benefits for the local farmers, the global community, our climate, and the Amazon rainforest alike.

We are as committed as ever to keep creating a movement to regenerate the Amazon, hectare by hectare, which we cannot do without you having our back. Thank you so much for all that you do to support local communities in the Peruvian Amazon and for being part of our movement.

With gratitude,

The Chaikuni Institute Team

Dear friends and supporters,

The Amazon is on fire! As you must have seen in the news, tens of thousands of forest fires are raging across the Amazon rainforest, and continue to spread through the region at an alarming pace. The fires haven’t reached Peru – yet. However, they have devastated immense areas in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.

While some fires are attributed to increased drought (unnatural in its occurrence and directly linked to a changing climate) most are deliberately set by humans seeking to clear the forest to expand business. In Brazil in particular, agri-business interests and cattle ranchers continue to set fires across vast swaths of forest in order to clear land for soy monocultures and cattle farms, fueled by the predatory right wing policies of president Bolsonaro.

With your support, we at the Chaikuni Institute promote an alternative to harmful slash-and-burn agriculture – the method which is largely responsible for these fires. At Chaikuni we promote a regenerative and diverse agro-forestry system called the chacra integral. One of the main characteristics of the chacra integral is a technique which involves letting chopped vegetation remain on the ground, which maintains nutrients in the bio-mass and mimicks the natural cycles of the rainforest ecosystem. The chacra integral system is a sure way to avoid fires in the region, because no burning is included in this process. An intact tropical rainforest is so humid that it is far more resilient to the spread of fires. A chacra integral promises a healthy and intact piece of rainforest, producing food, medicine and timber, providing myriad ecological and economic benefits to local communities as well as the global community.

Since we held our Permaculture Design Course (PDC) in May for local farmers from the surrounding communities of our permaculture center, we’ve continued to work on bringing these chacras integrales to their homes. By the end of the year, we set the goal to have installed 8 hectares of these rich agroforestry plots with participating communities.

The pioneers of this program are the local participants of the PDC, who we are working with to install these systems on their properties. We’ve started to visit them in their homes and on their land, collecting socio-economic data to build a solid baseline, which will later allow us to monitor the progress of this project. Just last week, we held a day-long course at our center to refresh the insights and techniques we learned from the PDC, focusing on the design of their properties, and in particular analyzing the best location for their agroforestry plots. In the case of one of the participants, we have already started implementing his chacra integral.

The work is done through so-called mingas. A minga refers to a day of communal work, and is very common for our region of the Peruvian Amazon. The owner mobilizes her or his family and neighbors to lend a hand in the field and offers them food in return. Our qualified staff accompanies and guides the work, and we also chip in with some of the food offered for the working crowd. From here onwards, we will assist in many more mingas to help establish the chacras integrales in the communities.

We are as committed as ever to keep creating a movement to regenerate the Amazon, spreading awareness and know-how that will also contribute to prevent future fires. Any donation will help us to take our project a step further.

Thank you so much for your support to local communities in the Peruvian Amazon and for being part of our movement.

With gratitude,

The Chaikuni Institute Team