An Overview Of Our Solution
Runa Foundation works to create new value for tropical forest that benefit local people and the forest ecosystem. By creating value for “chakras”-- traditional agroforestry systems-- our model serves to mitigate the effects of climate change, prevent forest degradation, and improve indigenous livelihoods. Working with indigenous communities, Runa provides technical assistance, trainings, and workshops to build local capacity. Runa collaborates with a diverse network of local, regional, and international entities from the public, private, and civil sectors to support sustainable production and land management projects while maintaining a focus on social responsibility. Runa’s work to improve local economic, environmental, and social conditions has received funding to expand our initiatives while monitoring and evaluating the impact and scalability of our projects.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: South America
General Information
Organization type
Nonprofit
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Population impacted
2,803
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
1,160
Production quantity
600,000
People employed
20
Solution
Describe your solution
Runa Foundation works with indigenous communities to mitigate the effects of climate change, foster biodiversity, and improve livelihoods by creating new value for forest products and increasing access to local and international markets. Building on existing local knowledge, Runa gives farmers the tools to maintain biodiverse agroforestry systems instead of conventional, mono-crop systems, while simultaneously increasing the economic stability of indigenous families. Runa focuses on improving sustainable production in buffer zones of protected areas to reduce forest fragmentation and encroachment into primary forest. The Organic and Fair Trade certifications of Runa products also ensure that certain environmental and social standards are upheld. The Fair Trade Certification ensures farmer associations receive a Social Premium Fund, an additional payment of 15% of guayusa sales that are invested in community development projects. Runa supports farmers to create platforms for cooperation, decision-making, and collective management, guiding associations through this these processes with technical assistance and capacity-building workshops that improve their leadership, organizational, and financial management skills. These initiatives empower local communities to manage their own resources, improve their livelihoods, gain access to credit, restore biodiversity, and protect cultural traditions tied to the chakra and rainforest.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Runa provides training to farmers to improve landscape management through community generated, integrated management plans. These plans help farmers to generate income from innovative non-timber forest products instead of monocrop plantations and logging. Organic production, in combination with reforestation and restoration of degraded lands, provides sustainable alternatives and promotes connectivity of biodiverse areas.
Fair Trade certification establishes fair and transparent market access, and the Social Premium provides funds for community development. Runa promotes gender equality in the management of these funds and collaborates with local governments to improve sustainability and execution of community projects.
Runa producers must comply with Organic and Fair Trade certification standards to be eligible to sell guayusa. Runa provides workshops and technical assistance to help guide association members through each step of the certification compliance.
Poverty in the region and the lack of diversified sources of income created a willing group of producers eager for additional agricultural income. The traditional knowledge of the chakra model allowed Runa to use existing farming systems to create economic and environmental value for a new product.
Runa’s diverse team has integrated modern business know-how with traditional Kichwa farming practices and governance structures. Runa’s policy to pay cash directly to farmers built a foundation of trust and lent credibility for future producer recruitment.
The creation of an entirely new value chain and market for an unknown product was a primary challenge. Farmer association formation was difficult due to limited organizational experience and the geographical expanse of guayusa production.
External connections
Runa Foundation works directly with Runa LLC and guayusa associations to develop and implement solutions that have attracted a diverse set of supporters and investors. Runa has impacted policy development by: 1. proposing clear public policies for sustainable management of non-timber forest products in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 2. influencing how Ecuador's Ministry of Environment regulates native species, and by 3. drafting public policy proposals that ensure guayusa and other crops are grown in sustainable agroforestry systems. Among others, Runa has collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation, and the MacArthur Foundation to address land management issues, create incentives for organic agroforestry production, create the guayusa supply chain, and invest communal funds into sustainable development projects. Runa Foundation has worked with provincial and local governments to provide incentives for guayusa production and financing investments in agricultural inputs and nursery construction. We have worked with the Ecuadorian National Bank to create a line of credit for guayusa production at competitive interest rates. Most recently, we have established a partnership with Fundación CRISFE to build the first Kichwa owned guayusa processing facility that will be community-owned and managed.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Traditionally, indigenous farmers in the Amazon have maintained ‘chakra’ agroforestry systems that mimic the forest’s natural composition, providing subsistence crops to families and natural habitats for flora and fauna.
In search of additional income, farmers are increasingly pressured to abandon the chakra farming method, resorting to conventional production of commercial crops, cattle grazing, and timber extraction. These activities often encroach on protected areas, threatening many species and contributing to deforestation and degradation. From 1990 and 2010 alone Ecuador lost a total of 28.6% of its forest cover.
Additionally, infrastructure development in the region through increased government programs and population growth has led to deforestation and exploitation in previously isolated areas. This has led to forest fragmentation, creating small pockets of biodiversity that limit the movement of fauna and create regions that are more susceptible to human impact.
Describe the context in which you are operating
Not only does forest encroachment pose an ecological threat in the region, but it also creates new challenges for the people living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Amazonian region lags behind national averages on many human development indicators such as malnutrition, literacy rates, and Gross National Income (GNI). Remote populations, such as those in the Amazon, also have much lower rates of participation in politics and decision-making processes.
These populations depend heavily on the rainforest for food, medicine, and water, and many of their cultural traditions are intrinsically tied to the rainforest and subsistence production in their chakras. Smallholder farmers also struggle to gain fair and sustainable access to local and international markets. Producers in the region traditionally lack experience working with farmer organizations or associations. Women in the communities are particularly inexperienced in holding leadership positions or taking part in decision-making processes.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Runa Foundation improves biodiversity and positively impacts the local environment in three principal ways.
1) Creating viable economic opportunities for non-timber forest products and organic agroforestry products increases overall income, reducing the necessity for unsustainable agricultural and extractive activities. our efforts to increase sustainable production in buffer zones leverages our impact to reduce encroachment into protected areas.
2) Runa promotes the production of guayusa in mixed-use agroforestry systems, which are naturally more biodiverse than conventional agricultural systems. A recent study investigating diversity and productivity of mixed agroforestry systems found that polycultures improve crop resilience against environmental pressures by increasing ecological diversification and simultaneously decreasing land degradation through the natural cycling of nutrients and reduced human disturbance. The proliferation of these systems also supports the maintenance of local flora and fauna populations, as these systems mimic the natural forest composition and provide habitat.
3) Supplementing our agricultural initiatives, our Landscapes Program works with communities to create integrated landscape plans that include strategies for improved resource management, as well as reforestation and restoration. This program has incorporated over 56,000 hectares into sustainable management plans, with 150 hectares of planned reforestation and restoration.
Language(s)
Spanish, Kichwa
Water
Encouraging the expansion of natural forest systems through reforestation and diverse agroforestry systems contributes to the maintenance of ecosystem services such as erosion reduction, nutrient recycling, and erosion reduction that are essential for maintaining healthy watershed. Mandating organic production contributes to the protection of watersheds through mandating sustainable production and waste management, while also prohibiting the use of chemical fertilizers, helping protect fresh wat
Food Security/Nutrition
Chakra agroforestry systems provide a sustainable source of many subsistence crops that sustain families with a diverse diet throughout the year. These systems have been shown to promote high levels of nutritional security, especially when compared to conventional monocrop production. The diversity of these systems also helps to ensure multiple livelihood opportunities for families throughout the year, providing varied income and reducing the negative impacts of seasonality on nutritional securi
Economic/Sustainable Development
Our work with local farmers has led to over $900,000 in direct income generation, $476,000 in social investments in 2016, and $137,500 invested in the Fair Trade Social Premium Fund to date. This additional income, coupled with intensive trainings in sustainable production, financial management, and community enterprise, help to ensure that indigenous communities have the resources and capabilities to provide for themselves and for future generations. Through building sustainable enterprises, as
Climate
Chakra agricultural systems encourage species diversity and the maintenance of environmental services on smallholder farms and community landholdings. These mixed-species parcels, coupled with our efforts at wide-scale integrated landscape management, restoration, and reforestation are designed to improve local livelihoods and ecological impacts simultaneously. The proliferation of woody species in natural systems both sequester carbon and regulate precipitation and climatic conditions, while i
Sustainability
Runa has created a value chain for a product that has been produced and consumed for centuries by local indigenous populations and, via our Fair Trade certification, has incorporated the product into a transparent, inclusive international market with a guaranteed fair price. Our market-based solution does not depend on donor dollars, but instead capitalizes on a sustainable product that is attractive to international consumers. Coupled with training in community based enterprise and additional financing to invest back into producer communities, our solution provides more sustainable income for producers in Ecuadorian farming communities.
Return on investment
By providing free guayusa trees as well as free training workshops to farmers, they were able to begin guayusa production at a very low personal cost. While funding was required for these activities and other necessary components of designing and implementing the guayusa value chain, Runa has had great success in leveraging diverse sources of financing from both public and private sources. These investments mean that farmers are now equipped with the technical capacity, biological assets, and market opportunities to generate income for themselves and their families for years to come.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Runa’s model creates new value for tropical rainforests through leveraging local knowledge, traditional agricultural methods, and existing governance structures to establishing sustainable value chains that empower local producers. A dedication to understanding local knowledge, the use of environmentally sustainable planting methods, and an economically profitable crop are necessary in replicating Runa’s model. Runa has already begun the replication of this process with existing producers with two other crops, cinnamon and peanut, to continue to generate value for producers through their existing chakra systems. Runa is also replicating this model in Peru, establishing a guayusa value chain with indigenous smallholders in San Martin. This project, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank, will initially benefit 250 farming families with a biological asset and technical assistance package that will provide an estimated 15% increase in future annual on-farm revenues.