OF COTUNDO
OF COTUNDO
PROJECTS
The Amazonian Kichwa loosely share their language with Andean Quechua (and the Incan Empire), although dialects and culture differ greatly, even between neighbouring provinces. Famous for powerful shamans and a close relationship with ayahuasca, today many Kichwa are reclaiming their ancestral culture and tremendous ethnobotanical knowledge. Their territory, like that of the Shuar, holds some of the most biodiverse forests on the planet.
Taken from the Kichwa in the past, throughout the Napo province the Archidona religious mission has given vast areas of land back to Kichwa communities. Outdated laws regarding “cutting forest to show ownership and claim free land” from the Kichwa have been erased. In Cotundo, the Sachawaysa eco-tourism workgroup are focused on revitalising the degraded landscape to recover biodiversity and recover lost ancestral plants used by their ancestors, in partnership with YAKUM.
THREATS IN THE AREA
The Amazonian Kichwa loosely share their language with Andean Quechua (and the Incan Empire), although dialects and culture differ greatly, even between neighbouring provinces. Famous for powerful shamans and a close relationship with ayahuasca, today many Kichwa are reclaiming their ancestral culture and tremendous ethnobotanical knowledge. Their territory, like that of the Shuar, holds some of the most biodiverse forests on the planet.
Taken from the Kichwa in the past, throughout the Napo province the Archidona religious mission has given vast areas of land back to Kichwa communities. Outdated laws regarding “cutting forest to show ownership and claim free land” from the Kichwa have been erased. In Cotundo, the Sachawaysa eco-tourism workgroup are focused on revitalising the degraded landscape to recover biodiversity and recover lost ancestral plants used by their ancestors, in partnership with YAKUM.
THREATS IN THE AREA
SACHAWAYSA FOOD FOREST
The Sachawaysa association and YAKUM have been reforesting 5 hectares of degraded cattle pasture land with ancestral fruit, nut and palm trees since 2018. In 2020 we began planting trees producing fibres and seeds for their traditional handicrafts business, and endangered fine timbers like mahogany. Young people from the community lead data collection in the field. This project is set to expand to reforest individual family land, and in new communities in the area.
