We are proud to share with you our 2024 Annual Report, a year marked by both environmental challenges and stories of resilience, action, and hope across the Peruvian Amazon.
Inside, you'll find highlights of our work with Indigenous students, community agroforestry initiatives and nature rights advocacy. From legal victories for rivers to the dreams of young Indigenous professionals, this report reflects our commitment to continue contributing to the regeneration of the Amazon.
We invite you to explore the report and join us in celebrating the people, partnerships, and ideas that are shaping a better future for the Amazon and its defenders.
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
In 2024, the Amazon once again made international headlines, this time with alarming news. The most severe drought in decades left the region with scenes that felt pulled from a post-apocalyptic film: massive ships stranded in the dry bed of the Amazon River, endless sandbanks where vast waterways once flowed, thousands of fires burning out of control… Haunting images that may offer a glimpse of a future that is no longer far-fetched. For years, scientists have warned that the Amazon is approaching a tipping point, where the rainforest could transform into a savannah, lose its climate-regulating role, and accelerate global warming.
But amid the despair, 2024 also offered reminders of resistance and hope. One such moment was captured in a photograph shared by international media: a group of Indigenous women smiling by the banks of a wide river. The river is the Marañón, now legally recognized as having rights in a historic ruling by the Peruvian courts. The women - Mariluz, Celia, Gilda, and Emilsen - are representatives of the Indigenous organization Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana and they are the driving force behind the case that led to this recognition. Behind this photo lies a long story of resistance and defense of territory, memory, and the rights of the Kukama-Kukamiria people, for whom the river is the heart of their culture, way of life, and spirituality. This ruling sets a new legal precedent to protect the Marañón and its tributaries from threats like oil contamination, dredging projects, and mining. At Chaikuni, we are deeply honored to stand beside the women of Huaynakana and their allies in this historic process.
In our own photo album from 2024, another image stands out: a group of Indigenous youth proudly holding their university diplomas. They didn’t make the front pages, but they are newsworthy and a source of pride for their communities, and for those of us who’ve walked alongside them. Pitit, from the Awajún people, smiles as she holds her bachelor’s degree in Tropical Forest Ecology. After her experience at the Chaikuni Center, she returned to her community to write her thesis on traditional Awajún chacras (agroforestry plots), showing how ancestral knowledge can engage with dynamic agroforestry techniques and provide the foundation for Indigenous communities to build their own productive alternatives. One of her dreams is to create an agroforestry center in her community.
From a drone’s perspective, our plots tell their own story. In 2024, the Chaikuni Center continued to consolidate its role as a space for practicing and promoting regenerative Amazonian agroforestry. We deepened collaboration with our allies through another successful Dialogue of Wisdom event and expanded our community promoter training program. Thanks to the initiative of regional Indigenous organization ORPIO, we welcomed new promoters from the Matsés, Kapanahua, and Yagua peoples. They join the work already being done with Kukama women from the Marañón, and nearby families who are already cultivating richly diverse, no-burn agroforestry systems.
In the face of uncertainty and major global challenges, nature teaches us that resilience lies in diversity, reciprocity, and cooperation. The commitment of our partners, collaborators, and volunteers; the dedication of the people, families, and communities we work with; the wisdom shared by our allies; and the trust of our donors, all fuels our daily work and strengthens our belief in a better future for the Amazon.
Thank you for walking this path with us,
Daniel López
Executive Director
