Iyarina (Ee-ya-ree-nah) is a land trust whose mission is to preserve Amazonian forest by maximizing both its biodiversity and the flourishing of indigenous families who live in relation to it.   

 

Success will be measured by

1.  The preservation of a   biodiverse Amazonian forest. 

2.  The improvement in wellbeing (sumak kawsana) of the families who live in relation to it. 

 

These two must go together for a very practical reason.   The best preserved and critically endangered forests are located in remote areas of weak state control prone to illegal trafficking.  These forests contain valuable hardwoods growing above gold and petroleum.   If the forest cannot sustain the people who live here, it will be cut down to extract resources regardless of who has title. Our goal is thus to preserve forest by managing it so as to produce both abundant food and local green employment.

     

Reaching these goals requires interdisciplinary and international innovation to meet serious challenges.   It also requires experience in dealing with the internal challenges facing local indigenous communities from the inside.

 

Iyarina is actively managed by a team that meets these criteria.  Director Tod Dillon Swanson first moved to the Ecuadorian Amazon as a child in 1961.  He is Senior Sustainability Scholar at Arizona State’s Global Institute for Sustainability as well as a member of the UN Science panel for the Amazon.  He has deep life experience in the Amazonian Kichwa world including long residency in a Kichwa community, fluency in the Kichwa language, past experience as elected Councilman for Territory and Environment of the Santu Urku Amazonian Community and President of the PTA of an Amazonian Kichwa School. He is married to an Amazonian Kichwa woman who co-directs Iyarina.

 

The Iyarina plan is to progressively purchase critical sections of forest that expand the present land trust eastward toward the Waorani Reservation Territory (some 25 miles East where Iyarina has two extension campuses, one on the Curaray and one on the Rio Nushino).   Purchases will be opportunistic but prioritize watersheds that safeguard community drinking water as well as corridors for animal movement between existing reserves.   The Waorani reservation in turn overlaps with Ecuador’s Yasuni National Park home to as yet uncontacted Waorani speakers living in voluntary isolation.  This region is the most biodiverse on earth but also one of the areas with the fastest rates of deforestation.

 

Contributions for forest purchase will include

 

salaries for indigenous forestry personnel proportionate to area acquired.

 

a wild animal rehabilitation and release center that will help repopulate areas where species have been lost.

 

A living seed bank for trees on the endangered species list

 

Active reforestation and upgrading of biodiversity in more depleted forests

 

The use of indigenous knowledge, language and personnel in carrying out these projects

 

A map the shows areas acquired as well as areas of interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Napo and Pastaza

 

 

it is a model that has worked well on smaller scale for over 25 years.

 

 

 

hese goals present challenges that require innovation. Iyarina is different from other land trusts in that the forest is actively managed by an experienced team of experts from American Universities working together with native knowledge keepers to  combine traditional knowledge with evidence based forestry.    The land trust serves as a research site where this team collaborates to develop practical solutions to the problems now threatening Amazonian sustainability.

 

 

 

Indigenous culture and language have long created a cohesive social bulwark against illegal operatives.    So as to preserve this social cohesion,  green employment for indigenous families must be carried out in the native languages, where possible, including native work patterns and adapting traditional knowledge to new uses.

 

1.  The productivity of the forest.

 

 

The Iyarina trust buys forest to protect an area of strategic importance.   Located on the South bank of the Río Napo at the foot of the Andes,  the Iyarina is situated in the most biodiverse region of the world. The forest trust is  20 miles of the Waorani reservation which in turn borders on the Yasuni National Park to the East (which is home to as yet uncontacted tribes living in voluntary isolation).   To the South are the  Sapara, Andwa, Achuar, and Sara Yaku Kichwa Kichwa nations to the South.   Just to the west is a highway running North to south along the base of the Andes where he provincial capitols of Tena and Puyo with their expanding populations are located.  The forests of this area contain valuable hardwoods and beneath the soil throughout this region are deposits of gold and petroleum.

 

Although legally easy to buy the challenge is how to preserve the forest once it has been purchased.  Between Iyarina and the Waorani reservation are other small private forest reserves including Jatun Sacha with some 2000 hectares and Selva Viva.

 

     Land purchases will be made strategically so as to prioritize the creation of corridors toward other forested private and indigenous reserves particularly the Waorani nation. Protecting the watersheds from which the Kichwa commmunities along the Napo draw their drinking water.  The Iyarina forest is located some 30 miles from the historic site of Palm Beach where 5 missionaries were speared in 1956. 

 

 

350,000 for initial purchases of forest

5,000 topógrafo

150,000 set up wild animal animal rescue center and get permits

16,500  1 year salary for Ingeniero Ambiental Cristhian Chacha Tixi.

2000 materials.  2 chainsaws, signage

10,000. used pickup   

1500  for legal fees for creation of land trust holding organization in Ecuador

 

 

 

 

The Iyarina (Ee-ya-ree-nah)  is an Amazonian land trust that focusses not only on acquiring critical forest but on preserving and improving the quality of the forest once it is acquired.  Because of weak state presence in the Amazon preserving forest depends more on local buy-in from local indigenous families than law enforcement.  For this reason our mission is to maximize both the wellbeing of the forest and the flourishing of the families who live in relation to it.  Our goal is a biodiverse forest that produces abundant food and green employment.  Because of their precarious economic situation local indigenous families cannot do this alone. For this reason Iyarina has an integrated team of experts in traditional indigenous knowledge and evidence based science that accompany these families over the long term. 

​

Success will be measured by

1.  The productivity of the forest.

2.  The preservation  biodiversity. 

3.  The wellbeing (sumak kawsana) of the families who live in relation to it. 

 

The Iyarina trust buys forest to protect an area of strategic importance.   Located on the South bank of the Río Napo at the foot of the Andes,  the Iyarina is situated in the most biodiverse region of the world. The forest trust is  20 miles of the Waorani reservation which in turn borders on the Yasuni National Park to the East (which is home to as yet uncontacted tribes living in voluntary isolation).   To the South are the  Sapara, Andwa, Achuar, and Sara Yaku Kichwa Kichwa nations to the South.   Just to the west is a highway running North to south along the base of the Andes where he provincial capitols of Tena and Puyo with their expanding populations are located.  The forests of this area contain valuable hardwoods and beneath the soil throughout this region are deposits of gold and petroleum.

 

Although legally easy to buy the challenge is how to preserve the forest once it has been purchased

 

Between Iyarina and the Waorani reservation are other small private forest reserves including Jatun Sacha with some 2000 hectares and Selva Viva.

​

     Land purchases will be made strategically so as to prioritize the creation of corridors toward other forested private and indigenous reserves particularly the Waorani nation. Protecting the watersheds from which the Kichwa commmunities along the Napo draw their drinking water.  The Iyarina forest is located some 30 miles from the historic site of Palm Beach where 5 missionaries were speared in 1956. 

​

​

350,000 for initial purchases of forest

5,000 topógrafo

150,000 set up wild animal animal rescue center and get permits

16,500  1 year salary for Ingeniero Ambiental Cristhian Chacha Tixi.

2000 materials.  2 chainsaws, signage

10,000. used pickup   

1500  for legal fees for creation of land trust holding organization in Ecuador