Grant Partner Highlight: Rainforest Partnership
In Ecuador, Indigenous communities are strong, vocal advocates for conserving rainforest and resisting threats from oil and mining extraction. That’s why Planet Women has granted funding to Rainforest Partnership over the last two years for their work with women-led associations in Indigenous Kichwa communities along Rio Napo in the Amazon Basin.
Before this project, there were next to no opportunities for women in these communities to become financially independent. With funding from Planet Women, Rainforest Partnership has enabled local women to gather for skill-building and training programs and develop projects that help build their economic independence. From handicrafts to aquaculture to sustainable cacao, local women are turning their abundant resources into opportunities to support themselves and shape their futures with creativity and vision—and steward the forest for generations to come.
Resourcing Indigenous Women who are Protecting the Rainforest
Raina Chinitz, Rainforest Partnership’s Project Coordinator who is currently living in Ecuador, shares her on-the-ground experience with this project, which “has created economic opportunities for women in communities who have never worked with an outside organization or on a livelihood project like this before.” Raina says:
Raina Chinitz, Program Coordinator at Rainforest Partnership. © Raina Chinitz.
"It has been an incredibly empowering experience to be a woman in a women-led organization, working to support women's livelihoods and opportunities in the Amazon with the support of an organization like Planet Women.
We've built a beautiful system for women to support and empower each other across borders and boundaries; Planet Women's belief—and ours—that women have the power to completely change the Amazon's future, has already altered the course of their lives. They now have what they didn't have before, and what so many women across the Amazon don't have: diverse skills, new ways of making an income and building economic independence, and support from external organizations that believe in their capacities to change the world.
With new tools, confidence, livelihoods and vision, these women are stronger leaders and advocates for community-led efforts to protect the forest. I'm proud and honored to be a part of this chain, supporting and supported by visionary, powerful women who are changing the world.
Your support has truly made a powerful impact on the lives of many women and their families. This work has so much potential to completely change the landscape here in Ecuador, where Indigenous communities are so under-resourced and unsupported, despite being the most important and successful guardians of the Amazon—and despite being urgently threatened by oil, mining, palm oil, development, and much more.
Thank you again for being active supporters and advocates for the women and their futures and for your support of our rainforest conservation mission.”
Expanding and Scaling this Work in More Amazon Basin Communities
This year, Rainforest Partnership plans to continue diversifying the ways women can make an income by including agroforestry, beekeeping, and cacao into projects. This will take consistent training and essential materials like seeds, hives, greenhouses, materials for drying and fermenting cacao, etc. They also plan to begin working with more women in more communities, depending on the resources they secure this year.
Raina says, “we are hoping to expand significantly, to work with 10-15 communities and over 200-300 women, or more! This is a really exciting model that we can replicate easily in other communities, to empower women and diversify income streams in Indigenous communities throughout the region. The lack of economic and educational opportunities is one of the biggest barriers that limits communities' capacities to protect their boundaries, forest, and way of life.”
Thank you to Raina and Rainforest Partnership for their amazing work! Learn more about this project and support Rainforest Partnership HERE.
Support Planet Women and Our Partners
Planet Women provides low-barrier grant funding to more than 20 partner organizations—like Rainforest Partnership—in the Amazon River Basin, the Congo River Basin, and the Colorado River Basin. We’re also strengthening the environmental movement through leadership trainings and gatherings for professionals and organizations working for a healthy planet. Please help to sustain this work by making a gift below.