Connecting up with the Awajún people of Peru

3 minute read

Participants of the Indigenous Carbon Exchange.

Participants of the BHPF Environmental Resilience Program Partners Workshop.

April offered the opportunity for connection and exchange with Indigenous Awajún communities in Peru, as part of the Indigenous Carbon Exchange and the Environmental Resilience Program hosted by Pollination and the BHP Foundation.

Braedan 'Bayo' Taylor, Karajarri Men's Ranger Coordinator, and Kevin Tromp, IDA Regional Support Officer, headed to the remote communities of Huascayacu, Naranjillo and Shampuyacu, for the Indigenous Carbon Exchange.

Bayo is welcomed by one of the women of the Nuwas Forest.

Groups were able to connect up and yarn together, and there were discussions around the challenges of balancing looking after country, culture and commerce. The need to support the aspirations of Traditional Owners to become financially self-sustained while still looking after country and culture was a common theme for everyone.

Landesa, an advocacy group made up of human rights lawyers, gave a detailed presentation on the process of registering a carbon project, and the co-design, consultation and decision making that goes into the development of Indigenous-led carbon projects.

Diego Dourojeanni

Diego Dourajeanni

Clockwise: Porcupine in Tingana Reserve; Rufous-crested coquette at Waqanki Ecolodge; squirrel monkey in Tingana Reserve.

The group visited Waqanki Orchid Centre, a private family-run reserve, where they met TO's who are using tourism to manage and conserve 104 hectares of forest, which they restored from farmland.

In the Shampuyacu community, the group met the Awajún women who control a parcel of land in the Nuwas forest, where they grow traditional medicinal plants. In caring for the 9 hectares of forest, the women are keeping culture alive and passing down knowledge to the younger generations, as mob are doing all across the desert.

Bayo in the Nuwas Forest.

"I thought to myself how similar we are as Indigenous peoples, seen how they loved being on country and living off the land ... I was thinking these tribes just want what's best for their community."

Bayo Taylor, Karajarri Men's Ranger Coordinator

Bayo (left) and Tyronne Garstone, KLC CEO (right) with the village chief at Alto Naranjillo.

After the carbon exchange was the Environmental Resilience Program, hosted by Conservation International Peru. As Kevin and Bayo made the long journey home to Karajarri Country, Kerenza Sunfly, IDA Junior Communications Officer, and Jonny Hodgetts, IDA Coordinator, travelled to Moyobamba and San Martin, where Conservation International are heading up a carbon project called Alto Mayo.

Kerenza presenting on right-way fire to the workshop group.

The group had the opportunity to present on their own conservation projects, and Kerenza presented on right-way fire under the workshop topic of 'resilience'. He yarned up about the importance of bringing fire into country right way, both as a way to look after and create resilient country, and to stay connected to culture.

The group also visited Waqanki Orchid Centre and Nuwas Forest to connect up with Awajún people there.

"My highlight of the trip had to be the learning experience and just looking at the similarities they have to us Indigenous desert people, I loved how connected and focused they were on their projects and how consistent they were with it. I definitely learnt to be more open minded and just to come out of my shell, I loved every second I was out there – beautiful beautiful country."

Kerenza Sunfly, IDA Junior Communications Officer