Aalborg Zoo and TRACER have made an agreement about financial aid to a project concerning the Indigenous people of Payamino in Ecuador. The aid is donated in the form of micro credits with the aim of creating a sustainable livelihood for the Indigenous people in the area (see www.payamino.org for further info on Payamino).

Aalborg Zoo and TRACER have made an agreement about financial aid to a project concerning the Indigenous people of Payamino in Ecuador. The aid is donated in the form of micro credits with the aim of creating a sustainable livelihood for the Indigenous people in the area (see www.payamino.org for further info on Payamino).
Micro credits are a well tested form of aid in many developing countries. Project coordinator Søren Hoff Brøndum already has several years of experience with micro credits from another successful project in Ecuador.


What is micro credits?
Micro credits are basically used to improve the livelihood of the Indigenous people of Payamino. In example a group will obtain a small loan to establish a sustainable fish farm, cacao plantation or for raising chickens. They buy 5 chickens and a rooster and nature takes care of the rest. It may sound banal but in an area where people live for less than a dollar a day and ways for improvements are small, this is the way forward.

And it works ! The native and especially the women now a have an actual way to make an income and afford clothing, food and education for their children and save at little for the future. All these kinds of activities are a part of the solution of saving the rainforest in Payamino. Søren Hoff Brøndum, projektkoordinator, explains.

Tracer has for years been giving aid to projects in developing countries – primarily through Save the Child. However we had for some time been looking for a project which we could identify ourselves with and where the effect of our humble donation was more visible to us.


"Philanthropy"
There are a lot of exciting aspects in the Payamino project for us. TRACER, being specialized in FSC certified tropical hardwoods, is that way already deeply involved in the protection of rainforest, however forestry does involve harvesting and thus an impact on the ecosystem. It´s the story of the egg and the omelette. In Payamino the rainforest in the 60.000 ha area is still intact and incredible valuable with an extremely high level of biodiversity. The People of Payamino have till now been successful in keeping loggers and especially oil companies out of the area.

”I was very surprised when I learned how much can be achieved with relatively few means when given to this project in the form of micro credits. Therefore there weren’t the slightest doubt in my mind and we are looking very much forward to seeing what progress the people of Payamino will achieve.

The support of Payamino is not something we do for businesses but for altruistic reasons and because we believe that such initiatives can be inspiring to others”,  explains Kasper Kopp, Director in Tracer.


The Project
The Payamino Project was initiated in 2002 through a partnership between the Kichwa community of San Jose de Payamino, the ZOOS GO WILD PROJECT and AALBORG ZOO, in order to save the unique wildlife and culture in the area through education, sustainable income generation and research in the village area to provide an alternative to the oil, mining and logging companies.

The vision of the project is to provide a breathing space for the Kichwa villagers that will enable the community to shape their own development path independently of what mining and logging companies has to offer and where the forest and culture all too often becomes the loosing part.

By the effort of the villagers and a growing number of sponsors and partners, the project has developed into a thriving community conservation project, which has managed to keep oil and mining companies at bay and provide alternatives to the illegal bush meat trade and improving the community’s self esteem as well as sense of control of their own future.

The project is supported by universities from Scotland, England and Denmark. The universities run expeditions and field courses to the TAMBURI RESEARCH STATION in the Payamino forest and have post-graduate students conducting research, as well as provide expert knowledge and inputs to the management group.

The challenges
Beside the struggle for landtitles and recognition of indigenous people’s rights in Ecuador, the Kichwas biggest challenge is to find a way of living off the land that provides the cultural and modern necessities, and at the same time doesn’t take away the same possibilities for the future generations.

Although the majority of the Kichwa indians today are self-reliant in terms of food production, there still exists a increasing need to earn money to pay for their children’s education, health services, transportation, clothes and other consumption goods in order not to become marginalized in the Ecuadorian society. Until now the only possibility for the Kichwa to obtain money has been by selling their timber, bushmeat, growing export crops or accepting unfavorable offers from mining companies that would leave their forest, water and natural resources devastated.

Based on a desire to preserve their forest and culture, the villagers agreed to enter a partnership with Aalborg Zoo in 2002 that would enable them to take charge over their own destiny and to create and develop livelihoods based on their own experience and visions, free of what outside mining companies are dictating.

The future challenge of the project is to create a legal platform and help generate the necessary income to address the problems faced the villagers, stop the negative development and create a diffent development path that can serve as a model for other communities in the area as well.

The area
Thee lands of the Payamino community covers approximately 60.000 hectares of primary lowland rainforest just south of equator on the eastern slopes of the Sumaco volcano. The Western part of their lands overlaps the Sumaco National Park and half of their traditional lands lies within the Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve.

The altitude is ranging from 200 m.a.s.l. downstream Rio Payamino to 1.500 m.a.s.l. as you go west towards the Sumaco volcano. The largest rivers are the Payamino River and its tributary the Paushiyacu River. The Payamino River meanders to the east towards the Coca River, which shortly after joins the large Napo River, which is one of the major tributaries to the Amazon River.

The Payamino lands are situated on the lower foothills of the Andes in one of the most species diverse resiones of the world. Jaguars, tapirs, peccaries, capibaras, anacondas, toucans, parrots and long list of amazonian mammals, plants and birds are still found in the area.

The research at the Timburi Research Station has already identified almost 300 different species of birds. In fact nearby studies in the Sumaco area has showed one of the highest number of bird species in the world with 840 species within an area of 100 x 100 km. (Skov, Borgtoft and Fjeldså, 1999). Researcher also believes that the area is likely to have a very high degree of endemism.

Moreover, the Payamino River is among the cleanest of rivers in the area as many rivers in the neighboring areas have been polluted by oilspills, human waste and erosion after logging and human settlements.

Much more information can be found at www.payamino.org and www.tra-cer.com.