Reforestation in the Amazon with the Huni Kuin

Leo Landon is organizing this fundraiser.

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With your help, let’s support the Huni Kuin indigenous communities of the Igarapé of Caucho (8 villages - 1000 members) in restoring their lands as well as increasing their food security, and allowing biodiversity to flourish again through our reforestation program ! Our local team of agroforestry specialists is supporting on a daily basis the communities participating in our reforestation program. We provide both technical support and all the necessary tools needed to purchase the seeds and sprouts that will be grown in our 11 plant nurseries (the first one built in July 2021, more than 15.000 saplings nurtured ever since). They will then be distributed to the participating villages.

Photo : Floresta TV / Guilherme Meneghelli

2021-2022-2023 : Making the impossible happen between the Amazon and Europe

2021 was a year full of great accomplishments for Association Jiboiana. It was thanks to all the kind souls that believed in us and our projects – and we would like to thank you infinitely! Three major projects were undertaken:

-Firstly, in the summer of 2021, we built three water wells equipped with solar panels alongside our partner APOTI and changed three filters in existing wells. This will provide sustainable clean water access for over 500 Huni Kuin guardians in the years to come.

For food security, we also built two plant nurseries in two Huni Kuin villages and prepared thousands of sprouts with the help of thirteen volunteers.

Photo : Nicolas Cortes

-Secondly, one month after returning to Paris, Jiboiana invited five Indigenous leaders and activists from Amazonia and Brazil to Europe. Hailing from four different tribes (Huni Kuin, Karajá, Munduruku, and Pataxó), we started an amazing journey to raise both awareness and funds to be able to undertake their respective projects for the benefit of their people. We traveled between Paris, Glasgow for the COY16 and COP26, and Brussels for an exceptional protest against the Mercosur free trade treaty in front of the European parliament.

Photo: Little Shao - The Indigenous Amazonian and Brazilian delegation invited by Jiboiana: Busã Huni Kuin, Val Munduruku, Alice Pataxó, Thaline Karajá, Siá Huni Kuin

-Then, from January to February 2022, a part of the Jiboiana team returned to the Amazon with the Huni Kuin people to pursue the reforestation and food security project. As well, they had the chance to facilitate training between Huni Kuin Agroforestry agents and the villagers, which gave recognition of their skills – which had not yet been done since there had not yet been the right opportunity to do so.

Photo: Guilherme Meneghelli / Floresta TV - The reforestation team

-In July and august 2022, we came back to the forest to 2 indigenous villages from 2 indigenous peoples, to build 2 water wells with our partner APOTI Association - one in a Huni Kuin village, the other one in a Shanenawa village. Now 100 more guardians of the earth have access to clean water for years !

Photo: APOTI, Guilherme Meneses

-Only two months later, we received again a delegation of 6 indigenous representatives from 5 indigenous peoples : Siã and Busã Huni Kuin, Samela Sateré Mawé, Val Munduruku, Thaline Iny Karajá and Tukuma Pataxó. We toured Europe for a month in October 2022, during the Brazilian elections, a critical moment for the world ; we went to Paris, organized a great March for the Amazon and indigenous peoples with celebrities and influencers and citizens, went in Brussels to the European Parliament and Commission, met with politicians, deputies, and people of influence such as Loic Le Meur through his event PAUA, which allowed us to meet Eoghan, who gave us a donation of 33.333 euros for our reforestation program for the Huni Kuin people !

-In January and February 2023, we came back to the Amazon to pursue the reforestation program and begin our cultural conservation program. After the 4000 trees planted in January 2022, we planted more than 5000 with the communities, and the agroforestry agents and the Huni Kuin families built 9 more plant nurseries in the 8 villages of this indigenous land, called Igarapé of Caucho. The reforestation program became a model in the region ! Many indigenous villages wish now to work with us, contacting us through our phones or social medias. A great leader of the Huni Kuin people, Ninawa Pai Da Mata, from the Novo Futuro Village, asked us to initiate the same project in his region called Humaita.

Photo : Audrey Paranque

- From the 10th of May until the 21th of May, we received a delegation of 2 indigenous leaders from the Puyanawa indigenous people - Puwe and Txuku, his daughter - from the Amazon rainforest. We organized and participated to several events to support their reforestation program !

Photo : Raine Piyako Ashaninka

Reforestation and food security in Amazonia: degraded lands and community gardens awaiting regeneration

More than 9000 trees have been planted since, and 11 plant nurseries were built. Nonetheless, in order for the project to be sustainable and for the five villages home to approximately 1000 Huni Kuin to benefit from the reforestation project, we need your support ! Our goal is to plant 20 000 trees during the next rain season, as the other communities loved our program and asked us to come back to build new plant nurseries. During this decade, with enough support, we would prepare to plant millions of trees... which will also bring an immense diversity and quantity of fruits and vegetables to the guardians of the forest.

Photo : Audrey Paranque, January 2023

It's important to know that the Huni Kuin land around the Igarapé do Caucho is the last forest frontier before the Amazon forest disappears. The lands are surrounded by large cattle farms, the owners having destroyed the surrounding forest leaving large stretches of infertile and barren land. Many species of flora and fauna have sadly disappeared as well.

In order to pay the agroforestry agents, to allow Caio (our botanical and agroforestry specialist) to buy native Amazonian tree sprouts, to ensure daily meals, to cover for the gas used by the boats to transport the sprouts, as well as support communication efforts – website, brochures, presentations - we are opening up a new crowdfunding campaign.

Thanks to all the information we gathered during our 2021-2022-2023 initiatives, we are sure that this ongoing project, in partnership with the Huni Kuin people, will be sustainable and long-lasting!

Photo : Audrey Paranque, January 2023

What will the money be used for ? The budget

Here is the budget we have conceived - we will need approximately 2,500 euro per month during the rainy season (the ideal time for tree planting) as well as 1,500 euro per month during the dry season, for logistics, technical maintenance, individual equipment, and tools, and care for the growing trees. Included in the budget are transport, food, and as well as the reimbursement of some astronomical coordination costs. (In order to help us reimburse our transport costs from the first trip which were paid out of pocket from the team members' personal finances).

Photo : Théo Colanges, January 2023

For the future, we are ensuring that the most possible amount of the budget is dedicated to the project on the ground. We are also accounting for a slightly higher amount of monthly costs, in case of emergencies (2,500 instead of 2,000, 1,500 instead of 1,000 per month)

By supporting Indigenous peoples through projects such as reforestation, clean water access, education, preservation of language and culture, we are fortifying their right to be on their ancestral lands – those most preserved in the world. (Aligned with multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, including 2,3,6,13,14,15,17) By developing our reforestation project (Native tree planting and preservation of those already existing), we are contributing to the preservation of the Earth's largest and most biodiverse continental biome. Amazonia accounts for 54% of the world's remaining primary tropical forests (Mongabay, 2020), 25% of terrestrial biodiversity, and more fish than most other rivel systems.

Photo : Audrey Paranque, January 2023

Your support is important, and we are deeply grateful to all those who believe in our work. The team has dedicated their hearts, minds, and souls to the preservation of the planet. Strong in this movement from the beginning, we hope to continue now together with you.