Support the indigenous people, protect the rainforest
Various studies confirm that rainforest areas managed by indigenous communities are best protected from overexploitation. However, the livelihoods of the indigenous people are disappearing due to logging companies and oil companies penetrating deeper and deeper into the forest. Many Achuar are looking for a new perspective in the cities. We want to prevent this by enabling the Achuar to live and work in the forest in a contemporary way. This will also preserve the biodiversity in the project region.
Chickens for the Achuar
By keeping chickens we want to ensure the basic supply of meat and eggs. The stables for the chickens are built according to a model stable by the indigenous people themselves. For the implementation, the indigenous communities need tools, accessories for the chicken coop, concentrated feed, a corn mill, chicks as well as seeds for corn cultivation. After the initial concentrate feed, the chicks are given ground corn that the villagers grow themselves. Wood, bamboo and straw as well as labor is contributed by the villagers as their own share.
These measures are used for self-sufficiency and barter, and generate income through sales when there is overproduction. In addition, with the breeding of chickens, the Achuar are no longer dependent on hunting wild animals.
With your donation you help enable the Achuar to stay in their ancestral home and to protect their rainforest.
The rainforest in Ecuador: Ancient and extremely species-rich
During the last ice age, the tropical rainforest of South America was largely transformed into a savannah. The former primeval forest survived only in individual retreat areas, which were scattered like islands over the northern half of the subcontinent. Ecuador has a share in two of these primeval forest regions, which survived the last ice age. They are among the tropical rainforest areas with the greatest biodiversity in the world.
The primeval forest island Napo is one of these old and extremely species-rich rainforest areas in Ecuador. The unique biodiversity was also positively influenced by the geographical location at the foot of the Andes mountain range. The area is home to a large number of endemic species, most of which are threatened with extinction. Exactly in this region is our project area (marked red in the map below).
