We first formed Rainforest Partnership in late 2007, meeting on a clear December morning and working throughout the day to formulate our vision and mission.  It was the first any of the board members had met, and the amount of overlap among our ideas was staggering.  Clearly we were meant to work with each other to achieve the common aim of addressing global climate change through forest conservation.

Shortly thereafter, we met again in a restaurant at the Doubleday Hotel and extrapolated upon the work we had accomplished.  During that meeting we arrived at a tag line that we thought encapsulated our vision and mission:  Linking people to people for a sustainable future.  The idea behind this message is that trees and forests don’t exist in a vacuum; there are communities who live and depend upon them for their livelihoods, medicines, etc.  Rather than approach forest conservation by fencing off the areas and excluding human activity, we believe that the best hope for saving these global treasures is to collaborate with the people who know them best and work to find sustainable economic alternatives to cutting them down.  Perhaps this is not a novel idea or approach, but we also determined that the best way for us to accomplish this would be to create a dialogue between communities by developing ties based on common interest, beginning first with our active, empathetic community in Austin, Texas, and the kind people of Chipaota, Peru.  In this way, we hope to develop connections — the links — between individuals in Austin and Chipaota to address the shared concern of deforestation in the Amazon.

For our first return visit to Chipaota, Executive Director Niyanta Spelman and I were accompanied by a number of volunteer Austinites interested in joining our effort and learning more about our partner community in Peru.  Filmmaker Michel Scott interviewed a number of Chipaotans, as well as our team on the ground, and will be producing a short documentary on the subject.  Environmental lawyer Marisa Perales met with prominent individuals knowledgeable in the area of Peruvian environmental law and teacher/musician Rob Richardson sat in and observed classes in the Chipaota elementary school.  In addition to the volunteer Austinites, we were also accompanied by Swedish documentary photographers Martin Edstrom and Alfred Runow.

Cameras and other equipment in tow, the extended RP team took a motor boat from Chazuta to Chipaota, about a half hour away.  We were met at the shore by some of the members of the community I would come to know well during the course of the next few days, and were led to a large, thatched-roof structure that serves as the general assembly area for the community.  As Niyanta has described in a previous post, the reception was overwhelming, and quite moving, as a number of community members had come from up in the hills where they live, miles away, to welcome us to the community and thank us for our efforts.  After a short period of socializing, and appreciating the crafts display they had set up on some tables in back of the room, the Apu (community leader) called the meeting to order.

Apu Don Prospero Cenepo Tapullima introduced Jaso, who spoke about the project up to that point and praised the community’s efforts.  Jaso was followed by Niyanta, who expressed our gratitude for such a warm welcome, and I spoke briefly about our appreciation of the efforts being made.  Next, a boy of about 10 impressively recited a poem in Spanish.

The boy was followed by a representative of the piassaba growers committee, which was formed as part of the RP project.  Then we were treated to an impassioned speech from the elementary school teacher, who told us, “You’ve planted that seed in your country and now it is giving fruit. We have work.”  Next, the president of the women’s artisan group, RP’s parallel project in the community, spoke about the tremendous progress being made in developing crafts for sale, and, finally, we were treated to beautiful music — songs performed in Quechua by three women from the community.   We were then served traditional food and drink from the community, which we enjoyed heartily (especially this vegetarian, who was surprised that he could eat everything in his bowl).  As the sun set over Chipaota, this moving experience became a part of my soul, something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.  We returned to Chazuta for the evening, to prepare our things in order to return the following morning for a three-day stay in Chipaota, graciously hosted by community members in their homes up in the hills, about four miles from the community center.  More to come.

In November 2008, the Rainforest Partnership Board of Directors held a special meeting at the Blue Dahlia Bistro on E. 11th Street in Austin, Texas, in order to discuss and vote on proceeding with funding our first project:  working with the native community of Mushuck Llacta de Chipaota in Northeastern Peru to develop a forest management plan.  After much discussion, the Board voted unanimously to move forward and we launched our debut project, which was chosen based upon a series of community criteria RP developed to insure accountability and transparency.  We will be commemorating this auspicious milestone on Thursday, November 5, at an anniversary event at the Barr Mansion, hosted by Austin filmmakers Richard Linklater and Elizabeth Avellan.

Much has taken place since that time, and in August of this year I finally had an opportunity to fly down to Peru and spend a few days in our partner community.  As a board member, as well as a volunteer, I have been involved in every level of the project, and had spoken via Skype with our Peru program coordinator, Lucia Eslava, and the Chipaota project manager, Jaso Angulo, on various occasions.  But mostly I followed Lucia’s project updates on the blog, and listened attentively to reports from our executive director.  Although I’d had previous experience working in indigenous communities, it was difficult for me to sit in an air-conditioned office in Austin and visualize Chipaota and its people.  Finally I would have a chance to visit the project site, meet our ground team, and learn more about our partner community.

We were met at the airport in Tarapoto, an entry city into the Amazon region, by Lucia.  It was truly exciting to finally meet her after having conversed so often through Skype.  We got settled in Tarapoto and spent a few days seeing the city, and meeting with Jaso for an update on the Chipaota project, as well as other regional news.  Then it was time to visit Chipaota and meet this amazing community.  From Tarapoto, we traveled to Chazuta, the district capital.

In Chazuta, we met with Deputy Mayor Leonel Julca Troncos in his office.  On her previous trip, Executive Director Niyanta Spelman had met with Deputy Mayor Julca and his support was crucial in our getting the project up and running in Chipaota.  During this meeting, he provided us with a very informed update of all the positive progress being made in the area in regard to promoting conservation and environmental consciousness and suggested some areas for future collaboration with RP.  We left the meeting with a definite sense of accomplishment, and will likely pursue further projects with Chazuta in the future.

And, finally, it was on to Chipaota, where we were greeted by a great many members of the community.  More to come in the next post.