Description
Project Description: Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
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About
"Where Indigenous peoples live, there are forests, rivers, and abundance. Our relationship with our forests and rivers is not a relationship of 10 or 20 years—it is a relationship of more than 10,000 years. For thousands of years, we have preserved and defended nature through the strength of our cultures, worldview, and our respectful lifeway. Indigenous peoples do not talk about conserving nature; we talk about respecting nature because we see her as our family, we see her as the mother, we see her as our home.
We have begun to join together all the efforts, all the tools, the spirits of our ancestors, and the visions of our wise elders, so that together with the global community we can defend our mother. Calling on governments, Indigenous peoples, and citizens everywhere to come together to protect our greater home! We must do this so that the river continues to feed us and the rainforests continue to heal us, because the Amazon is life. Because our headwaters are sacred!"
— Gregorio Mirabal, Excerpt from the Forward to the Bioregional Plan 2030
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Founded in 2017, the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (ASHA) is an Indigenous-led alliance seeking to permanently protect more than 86 million acres of tropical rainforests in the headwaters of the mighty Amazon River—the Napo, Pastaza, and Marañon Basins of Ecuador and Peru. The initiative has been building a shared long-term vision, capacity, and alliances for the designation of a bi-national protected region off-limits to industrial-scale resource extraction under Indigenous peoples' stewardship. We are advancing stronger Indigenous territorial rights while working to shift the dominant paradigm from the pursuit of economic growth and industrial development to a regenerative standing forest economy centered on the wellbeing of communities and the ecological integrity of the bioregion.
The Amazon Rainforest at the Tipping Point
The Amazon Basin, the Earth’s largest rainforest—home to 500+ Indigenous nations and unparalleled biodiversity—is reaching a tipping point of no return. Forest and biodiversity loss continue as a result of extractive pursuits carried out in the name of development such as mining, oil drilling, logging, and industrial agriculture.
The Amazon rainforest drives atmospheric rivers essential for the circulation of rainfall around the planet. The forest also sequesters carbon, regulates local and global weather patterns, and cools the climate. Scientists warn that the Amazon’s hydrological system is unraveling due to deforestation, and that this will likely trigger a massive forest dieback within decades unless we move urgently to protect and restore 80 percent of the Amazon’s forest cover.
About the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance
The Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region joined forces in 2017 and gave birth to the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (ASHA)—an initiative with the goal of protecting our rainforest territories, united by the common understanding that we all belong to an interconnected web of rivers and forests, and that we are all kin. When we unite, we can better protect our lands and our rights.
ASHA emerges as one of the world’s largest Indigenous-led forest protection initiatives. We are an alliance of 30 Indigenous nations and peoples in Ecuador and Peru with a shared vision of permanently protecting 86 million acres of bio-culturally diverse tropical rainforests (an area larger than Italy) in the headwaters of the mighty Amazon River, in the Napo, Pastaza, and Marañon Basins.
ASHA’s Key Funding Priorities
With Indigenous leadership at the helm, the Alliance is mobilizing and channeling funding to:
- Strengthen institutional capacity of Indigenous member organizations for territorial governance, advocacy, project implementation, and financial management;
- Secure funding to support Indigenous-led initiatives for food security, livelihood alternatives, forest monitoring, intercultural health/education, and renewable energy;
- Accompany and support the pilot reforestation project and the Amazon Living School;
- Launch the monitoring and evaluation system and the GIS platform, and design a project portfolio platform showcasing priority initiatives;
- Organize or participate in joint communications/advocacy campaigns and legal actions to deter extractive industries and defend Indigenous rights and the rights of nature;
- Advance legal recognition of Indigenous land claims covering 22 million acres of rainforests; and
- Propose systemic solutions to incentivize forest protection and halt deforestation (canceling debt, wellbeing indicators, universal basic/intact forest income, bioeconomy hubs).
Our Theory of Change
For millennia, Indigenous peoples have demonstrated that it is possible to live in harmony with nature and in kinship with all life. Some of the best-preserved regions on Earth are areas inhabited by Indigenous peoples, boasting 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity and half of the world’s intact forests. Solutions emerging from our collective processes as communities and territories are rooted in our culture and traditional ecological knowledge.
While Indigenous stewardship has been shown to be key to the success of forest protection efforts, less than 1% of pledged climate funding reaches Indigenous territories. Through this Alliance, we are joining together to mobilize significant financial and technical resources to ensure that our voices are heard, our rights are recognized, and our territories are protected.
For the governments of Ecuador and Peru to forgo their industrial ambitions for the Amazon, they must be persuaded to understand that protecting this bioregion is a win-win-win for Indigenous peoples, the Earth’s biosphere, and their nations’ long-term economic prosperity. It is our premise that significant levels of international funding, investments, and financial mechanisms (e.g., debt forgiveness, climate and biodiversity adaptation and mitigation funds, philanthropy) can be mobilized and leveraged to incentivize the protection of the Sacred Headwaters region.
What happens in the Amazon Headwaters ripples throughout the basin. It is urgent to shift to a new paradigm of well-being and harmony where the bioregion, the territories, cultures, biodiversity, and the regenerative economy are mutually flourishing.
The Alliance’s Governance Structure
Since 2017, our Alliance has grown to 27 member organizations, of which 24 are Indigenous organizations. Our governance structure has been evolving to ensure ample transparency, sound governance, and meaningful participation by member organizations.
ASHA’s work is facilitated by a Technical Secretariat. The Secretariat provides technical, financial, and administrative support to the Alliance and coordinates various working groups focused on planning, fundraising, project implementation, evaluation, and advocacy. The Alliance is further guided by a council of Indigenous wisdom keepers and a global commission of experts.
Since its inception, the Technical Secretariat has been housed at Fundación Pachamama. In July 2023, ASHA embarked on its next chapter and began a process of transitioning its operations to a new Indigenous-led nonprofit entity legally incorporated in Ecuador, under its Spanish name “Alianza Cuencas Sagradas Amazónicas”. The newly incorporated Alliance is governed by the General Assembly of Members (formerly called the Governing Council), which is composed of representatives of the 27 member organizations. The General Assembly meets in person twice a year to determine strategic priorities.
The following are the elected board of directors for the 2023-2026 period:
- Founding member & Alliance President of the Board: Uyunkar Domingo Peas Nampichkai (Achuar)
- Founding member & Alliance Vice President: Wrayz Perez (Wampis Nation)
- Founding member: Jorge Perez (AIDESEP)
- Founding member: Lolita Piaguaje (CONFENIAE)
- COICA Representative: (vacant, TBD)
- Lourdes Jipa (Nación Quijos)
- Elaine Shajian Shawit (CORPI)
- Olivia Bisa (GTA Chapra)
- Saúl Calapucha (PAKKIRU)
- Belén Páez (Fundación Pachamama)
- Kim Chaix (Rainforest Foundation US)
Learn more about our work at:
www.cuencassagradas.org | www.sacredheadwaters.org
Additional Information
Please describe your project's mission and values.
One of the world’s largest Indigenous-led conservation initiatives, the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance (ASHA) has unified 30 Indigenous nations of Ecuador and Peru, collectively advocating for the protection of 86 million acres of highly bioculturally diverse tropical rainforests—an area the size of Italy.
Indigenous peoples have demonstrated a profound ability to live harmoniously with nature. They have maintained the Earth's most pristine regions containing an astounding 80 percent of the planet's terrestrial biodiversity and half of its remaining intact forests. ASHA’s solutions, derived through communal and territorial processes, are firmly rooted in traditional ecological knowledge. While Indigenous stewardship has been shown to be key to the success of forest protection efforts, very little conservation and climate mitigation funding reaches Indigenous territories. Through this Alliance, we are joining our efforts to mobilize significant financial and technical resources to amplify our voices, reforest lands, secure the recognition of our rights, and safeguard our territories.
What is the location of your land project?
Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon—the Sacred Headwaters bioregion.
Summarize the regenerative activities you are engaged in.
ASHA’s regenerative activities include securing funding to support:
- Indigenous-led food security initiatives
- Livelihood alternatives
- Forest monitoring
- Intercultural health and education programs
- Reforestation projects
- The Living Amazon School (EVA)
Additionally, we advance legal recognition of land claims covering 22 million acres of rainforests while working to propose systemic solutions to incentivize forest protection and halt deforestation:
- Canceling debt
- Wellbeing indicators
- Universal basic/intact forest income
- Bioeconomy hubs
What particular initiatives will these funds support?
Support will advance our efforts to:
- Bolster food security for land stewards by:
- Reducing malnutrition
- Increasing food production through sustainable agroforestry
- Community education on nutrition and sustainable practices
- Contribute to the Living Amazon School (EVA), a program designed to help the next generation of young Indigenous leaders in the Ecuadorian Amazon with technical assistance and training
- Provide general capacity-building support to train Indigenous team members on advocacy, communications, and territorial coordination
How will/do you measure or determine the impact of your efforts?
An adaptive Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (ME&L) system has been designed and is being tested to carry out the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of our interventions and to measure our impact towards our bioregional plan and systems change goals. The Secretariat produces quarterly and annual reports to present our progress and challenges in relation to the priorities set by ASHA’s General Assembly.
Currently, our Alliance holds retreats 1 to 2 times per year with its various bodies (members’ assembly, Secretariat staff, and board) to collectively review and evaluate our successes, failures, and the latest developments in order to harvest our learnings and set priorities. Our methods of evaluation have been mostly qualitative, and on occasion, our advocacy and legal actions report clear outcomes:
- Halting mining or oil drilling
- Upholding Indigenous rights
- Defeating harmful legislation
- Public actions such as the Yasuni referendum
We have also developed a novel framework and metrics for specific projects such as the Living Amazon School (EVA) related to Indigenous youth developing leadership and technical skills to monitor their ancestral territories and a dashboard of results for the reforestation program.
The Communications department at ASHA does extensive work by recording the reach of specific campaigns and events, compiling this information in an extensive communications report (in Spanish) that can be provided upon request. This report includes:
- Social media reach and impressions
- Attendance at online events
- Mentions in the media
- Articles where ASHA is featured
Even so, our monitoring, learning, and evaluation systems across all of our programs need further development.
In response to this need, ASHA’s Research and Learning working group was established in late 2022 to enhance our understanding of our Alliance’s impact on the Amazon Sacred Headwaters bioregion. This group has produced and proposed a number of tools and processes that, once fully implemented, would enhance our Alliance’s capabilities to ask the right questions and gather both quantitative and qualitative information to be able to "see" and evaluate the system's dynamics and trends and the impact of our interventions, identifying how we could adapt and learn from these patterns to more effectively deliver our mission to protect the headwaters.