Our latest community assembly took place this Sunday July 12 at 8:30 am. The Apu (village chief), Don Prospero Cenepo Tapullima, invited the Rainforest Partnership technical team to participate in the assembly, which touched upon a diverse array of community issues. We informed the villagers and partners about the progress of the management plan of piazaba, which was submitted to INRENA last month.Jaso Angulo, the program manager for the paizaba project, informed everyone of the procedure we followed for the submission of the management plan document to INRENA. He explained the data that were processed (including data we collected in the field with community members), comments from INRENA, and the need to hire an INRENA-certified engineer to sign necessary paperwork. Finally, we presented a copy of the submitted document to the Apu, as a guide for the community and the piazaba producers. We explained the current state of the management plan and the procedure to follow prior to receiving permission to extract the fiber.
The members of the community inquired about the necessity of the specialist from INRENA to install the management plan. They also asked how much time it could take for the response from INRENA. Here we clarified that we had investigated the existence of a legal alternative while we were awaiting INRENA approval. We also mentioned that the president of the regional government is aware of this project and is going to make his best efforts to try to speed up this process to benefit the community, which is ready to start this work.We also talked about RP’s interest in continuing to support the sustainable development of Mushuck Llacta de Chipaota, since we could see the good organization and participation of the community during the development of the project.
Then we detailed the two projects that RP will continue to support, which are the implementation of the management plan of the piazaba and the artesan project. We mentioned the objectives, the method of work, and we made a general invitation to all of the members of the community (men and women) of Mushuck Llacta to participate in these projects, which will occur through December.Finally, we informed the villagers about the arrival of members of RP and their guest documentarians who will come to Tarapoto, Mushuck Llacta, and also visit the areas of piazaba production in the forest.
The villagers agreed to coordinate receiving the group. As a result of the community assembly, we had the acceptance of 100% of the attending villagers for RP to continue supporting them in the implementation of the management plan with the help of Jaso, in the development of the project, and artesan businesses with Lucia.
Tags: Chipaota, Community meeting, Rainforests
