Our Rain Forests

Rain Forests are among the World’s most-vital resources.  These forests remove immense amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere daily.  Rain forests are home to countless medicinal plants, many of which have been developed into modern medicines.  Rain forests are centers of unrivaled biodiversity.  More species of plants and animals occur within these forests than in any other geographic location on Earth.  The rain forests need more help now then ever before.

Right Action Alliance is proud to be partnering with Ecoversity to introduce new methods of sustainable agriculture to indigenous peoples in an effort to help preserve this amazing resource.

The pilot project was introduced in January 2009 among the Shipibo tribespeople living in Nuevo Egypto, a small village in the Ucayali River basin of central Peru.  At the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, this region has come under increasing pressure in recent times from both loggers and from individuals in need of additional land on which to plant crops to support their families.

Traditionally, the Shipibo have used a system of “slash and burn” agriculture.  They cleared a section of forest for farming, and after a few years would allow this section to be ‘reclaimed’ by the jungle.  They would then clear a fresh section of forest on which to plant crops- while the previously used land, now depleted somewhat of nutrients, was allowed to be overgrown with native plants.  They would return to the original plot of land after a year or two and burn off the new growth, thus clearing the land again for their farming use.

This dated system of rotating croplands by slashing and burning the jungle is no longer viable in our modern World.  It is our goal to introduce alternative systems of agriculture to the indigenous people which they will find advantageous.  Only then can it be expected that they will indeed embrace this new method of management of their jungle resource.

We are happy to report that the Shipibo do indeed favor this new system, and we are eager to expand this new practice of sustainable agriculture into more of the village of Nuevo Egypto and into adjacent villages as well.