OUR STORY
Yungas builds on the LVI project to protect the Amazon rainforest and drive economic growth in indigenous communities. It boosts farmers’ incomes to safeguard land rights and biodiversity in Peru’s southern rainforest, addressing challenges like low profit margins, climate change, and market volatility.
Yungas empowers farmers by expanding their share of the value chain through three key areas: agricultural advancement, commercialization, and organizational strengthening. It promotes sustainable farming and climate adaptation, diversifies products, and uses traceability tools to increase income. Farmers reinvest earnings into their organizations, gaining ownership of institutions and knowledge for a sustainable future.
The project also focuses on empowering women in the coffee supply chain and integrating climate-smart agriculture for sustainable land use. Supporting certifications like organic standards further boosts farmers’ incomes and contributes to environmental sustainability. This approach has increased farmers’ income by an average of 34% annually, helping indigenous communities stay on and protect their land.
Economic Development
How? Yungas trains farmers in regenerative agroecological practices that dramatically increase production and quality of thier products significantly increasing incomes. Yungas also connects farmers through more ethical markets.
How does economic development support conservation? Prior to Yungas these jungle communities were disappearing due to poverty. Farmers were abandoning their land to work in cities. By creating wealth in the communities Yungas shows farmers that the real opportunity is staying in their community. Conservationists agree that a thriving indigenous society is the best conservation strategy.
Social Impact
Strong social bonds are an important factor in any collaborative effort in indigenous communities. Yungas supports these bonds in three important ways: cooperative governance, Oppotunities for women, and youth empowement.
Priorities:
- Training farmers in cooperative governance and management to create an entirely farmer led cooperative
- The creation of a formal women’s coffee association with leadership and market opportunities.
- Opportunities for youth to expand their horizons to support their communities beyond farming.
Environmental Impact
218
Hectares of culitvated land managed through agroecological methods that support biodiversity
127
Farms georeferenced for land use traceability purposes and future conservation activities
The first step to environmental impact is helping farmers stay on their land. Yungas does that by creating wealth in the communities. The second step focuses on managing the land. Through Yungas farmers substitute slash and burn practices with regenerative agroforestry. Communities are united to work their land more sustainably and protect their vast tracts of communal forests.
Yungas provides farmers with training on sustainable environmental practices. As part of its climate adaptation strategy, the organization has developed over 17 kilometers of irrigation systems to enhance water management efficiency. Additionally, post-harvest workshops focus on reducing the water footprint of coffee production and minimizing the pollution caused by fermentation byproducts are raising awareness on water usage.
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