Sani Isla, Ecuador: Project Overview
Project Summary
Rainforest Partnership has been working with the indigenous Amazonian Sani Isla community and the Ecuadorian NGO Conservación y Desarrollo on the “Kichwa Arts and Crafts Project.” The project’s aim is to revive the art of traditional handicrafts made with resources from the local forest. RP is working with the women of Sani Isla to help them create and market crafts as a means of earning a sustainable income and an alternative to deforestation.
Sani Isla is an indigenous Kichwa community situated in northeast Ecuador at the borders of two protected Amazon rainforest areas, Park Yasuni and Nature Reserve Cuyabeno. Sani Isla is home to 1,652 inhabitants (302 families) and over 20,000 hectares of land. The community of Sani Isla has traditionally made its primary income by growing cacao. Not only does cacao production result in widespread deforestation, but it is also an unreliable source of income because of frequent swings in commodity prices.
The Partnership
RP and CyD began their partnership to protect Sani Isla’s forest in 2008. CyD’s mission is “to promote sustainable development and the rational use of natural resources and to raise publice consciousness about resource management.” To date, CyD has helped the community identify forest resources that could be sustainably utilized to make artisan crafts. They are also helping train the women to make and market high quality goods. In March of 2010, Rainforest Partnership and CyD worked together to develop an implementation plan for the “Kichwa Arts and Crafts Project.” Project implementation of Phase 1 began in May 2010. A total of 14 women from the community were involved in the first phase of the project.
Achievements
One of the biggest achievements of Phase 1 was the construction of an artisan studio. The artisan studio provides the women of Sani Isla with a place to work together on their crafts, exchange ideas, and sell their products to visitors from the nearby ecolodge. With the completion of the studio, the women have been given access to developing an independent stream of income which will increase their quality of life and provide them with a sense of empowerment. The women’s products are also now being sold through RP’s partner at PanamaBoutique.com on a very small-scale. Products include intricately woven shigras (bags), necklaces and bracelets.
In Phase 1 of the project, RP also worked with the community to construct a nursery. The nursery is now being used to grow plant species traditionally used for making arts and crafts. This way the women can make products from the forest but do so in a sustainable way. Each woman is also in charge of cultivating and caring for a small plot of land containing the same species existing in the nursery. Between the nursery and the individual plots, a total of 2,000 native plants have been planted and are currently being cultivated.
Goals
In the next phase of the project, RP will work with the community on the following goals: developing an understanding of the craft supply chain through innovative learning and tours, strengthening the women’s organizational, administrative, and management skills, developing a website and blog to promote Sani Isla’s crafts, developing and implementing processes to monitor and evaluate project results, the impact on the community, and the long term sustainability of the project and expanding the artisan group from 14 women to 20 women.
