Our Yorkshire Rainforest Project will be helping Ashaninka communities based along the Ene river in the Junin region – a population of over 10,000 people. The region is very remote – reached only by an 8 hour boat trip – and the Ashaninka community remained isolated from outside influences until relatively recently

The forest provides everything for the Ashaninka – from the river where they bathe, wash their clothes and source water for cooking, to their food, shelter, fuel and medicines.

An Ashaninka Congress in session – this is where Ashaninka communities meet to discuss threats to the area and ongoing projects, as well as voting on decisions that will affect the forest. The biggest threats to the Ashaninka in recent years have come from oil companies, drug traffickers, both illegal and legal logging, and the possibility of a new hydro-electric dam, which, if built, will flood many communities and cause thousands of Ashaninka to lose their homes and ancestral lands.

The Ashaninka are a family-based community, and traditionally settlements never grew beyond a nuclear family and that of their children’s families. Communities are very young – 52% of the population are under 15 – a legacy of the violent conflict between the Shining Path and the Peruvian state in the 1980s and 90s. Typically a family will have four or five children.

Each Ashaninka family will have its own 'chakra', a one or two acre plot which they farm for subsistence. Typically men will clear the plots and plant crops such as yucca, sesame, coffee and cocoa, and then women care for and harvest the food. Plots are used for 5 years and then left fallow for another 30. Farming is wholly dependent on manual labout, as neither animals, fertilisers or pesticides are available.

Masato is the traditional ‘manioc beer’, enjoyed at most Ashaninka gatherings. It’s made by pounding steamed manioc (a type of root vegetable), and then chewing and spitting sweet potato and achiote (a little like a cross between a turnip and beetroot) into the mixture and leaving it to ferment for several days. The resulting beverage is fizzy, bitter – and apparently very tasty.

Women are starting to come to the forefront to represent their people – a very positive step as it is the women who keep communities running smoothly and who care for the young. They are very well placed to act as guardians for their community lands.

Most Ashaninka children attend a primary school. Alongside their usual lessons the school-children learn what it means to be Ashaninka and how they can contribute to their community. The students also learn why it’s so important to look after the environment – they are taught that it’s their forest, their home, and if they don’t look after it then who will?

Ruth – the president of CARE, Central Ashaninka of the River Ene, who are putting our Yorkshire Rainforest Project into action on the ground. Since the project started, CARE has run training workshops to help the Ashaninka monitor and control logging in their area and help them benefit from and manage their forests in the long term.

It’s also important that communities can make an income from their forest resources. So together we’re helping the Ashaninka to receive training in how to improve the quality and quantity of the cocoa and coffee that they grow amongst the trees, so that they can make a decent living from them and pass down their skills to the next generation.