Participatory Exchange and Conservation; A collaboration between Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Ecuador and the Social Enterprise Runa.

            In response to the cyclic and pervasive poverty trap affecting indigenous populations in Latin America, the social enterprise, Runa, provides direct market access, agroforestry training, and integrated development services to Amazonian farming families to create lasting social change. Runa is composed of both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the US and Ecuador, with the Runa Foundation USA serving as a 501c3 registered entity that provides strategic and financial support to Fundación Runa in Ecuador. Fundacion Runa works in the two central provinces of the Ecuadorian Amazon, Napo and Pastaza, where it provides technical assistance to small farming families to reforest degraded lands with Guayusa agroforestry. (Gage, Proposal, 1-3)

            Unlike many development projects that are initiated on behalf of western NGOs and for-profit business working in the Amazon and with its people, Runa was co-envisioned by indigenous Kichwa communities and representatives from the United States. In fact, “Runa began as a conversation over tea, during hours before sunrise in the Amazon rainforest. In the winter of 2008, three students traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to participate in an ancestral tea ceremony with the Kichwa people- a tradition of storytelling, music, and learning- all centered around a large boiling pot of guayusa tea over fire. While drinking guayusa tea together, the communities shared a vision to expand their circle and bring their tradition of guayusa tea to friends around the world. Collectively, a business was envisioned that could share this rich tasting tea- a business that would respect cultural traditions, support small farmers, and maintain the integrity of the Amazon Rainforest” (Gage, MacCombie ect. 2).  The birth of Runa, as a collaborative effort to create lasting environmental, economic, and social changes, is an innovative model for sustainable business and fair trade that Runa calls Participatory Exchange and Conservation. It is Runa’s belief that  plants and foods have always served as central points of relationship between people, cultures, and lived environments, and that intentional and respectful sharing of knowledge, dreams, traditions, and goods is a natural and powerful way to grow sustainably as a global society in harmony with the Earth.

            Runa's primary activity is providing direct market access to small farmers for a shade-grown plant called guayusa (pronounced “why-you-sa”).  A native tea, guayusa is a naturally caffeinated holly leaf from the Ecuadorian Amazon that indigenous Kichwa and Shuar communities have revered and consumed for thousands of years.  The Kichwa of eastern Ecuador are a a population of approximately 80,00 people, divided into hundreds of  smaller villages and associations.  As the largest of the 8 indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Kichwa have persevered through a difficult history of colonization and have largely maintained their integrity as a people. (Gage, MacCombie ect., Appendix C). Grown in agroforestry conditions by indigenous Kichwa farming families, the guayusa leaves are traded through a vertically integrated supply chain between Runa’s multi-part enterprise in Ecuador and the United States.  This strategy utilizes a Fair Trade market mechanism to unite the priorities of income generation, cultural preservation, and sustainable management of natural resources.

INCOME GENERATION: Helping farmers sell and plant guayusa to increase their income.

            For Runa, economic empowerment is viewed as the crucial first step to generating capability among local Amazon communities.  However, aiming to drive systemic change through its work, Runa does not see income generation as an end in itself, but rather as a tool and resource that empowers small farmers to proactively and willfully direct the course of their own sustainable development. Farmers currently earn $500-$900 per year of income, and guayusa sales will generate a minimum of $1,500 per year of additional income per family, raising the average farmer’s income by more than 200%. (Gage, Proposal, 2) Runa travels to each family farm to buy fresh guayusa leaves, immediately paying each farmer a guaranteed minimum price.

            Compared to other market-driven development initiatives, Runa stands out with its focus on Fair Trade social premiums;  a practice which re-distributes a percentage of Runa’s total income generation through Fair Trade markets back into the communities. Runa pays an additional 10% to social premium funds used by farmer associations to implement social development programs, paying over $1.5 million per year after 5 years. Within that same five 5 years scope, Runa’s goals are to bring agroforestry models to over 10,000 farming families, plant over 6 million trees on 10,000 hectares of land, and generate over $15 million dollars per year of sustainable income for indigenous families, once their hectares of guayusa become productive 3 years after planting. (Gage, Proposal, 1)

             Runa’s technical team of 9 local agronomists and forestry engineers implement agroforestry development by providing technical assistance to over 600 farmers to reforest land with guayusa and other local species. Runa's technicians follow a six-step training process with each farmer, from cutting selection through organic agroforestry management to sustainable harvesting techniques.  Runa thus assists farmers to grow their own productive capability. Agroforestry plots will at least double the average farmer’s income within 3 years, providing them with consistent and sustainable income. (Gage, Proposal, 2)

CULTURAL PRESERVATION THROUGH SOCIAL INVESTMENTS:Translating income generation into meaningful investments in high impact social services and sustainable technologies

            Fundacion Runa incorporates Guyusa Producer Associations under Fair Trade standards to sell guayusa as a legal entity.  In addition to legal and accounting reasons, the Fair Trade Labeling organization requires that companies pay a “social premium” to a producer’s organization in order to obtain official Fair Trade certification. A “Social Premium” is an additional 5% payment that the purchasing party makes to the association to support social and environmental projects to benefit the farmers. In addition to buying guayusa at Fair Trade prices from the Runa Foundation in Ecuador, Runa LLC pays an additional 10% as a social premium to support the holistic development of the farming communities. (Gage, Proposal, 3)

            The first guayusa producers association of Napo incorporated in January 2010, with 30 indigenous farmers. Fundacion Runa will support the creation of separate Guayusa Producer Associations in each of the provinces they expand into. The Associaitons will invoice Fundacion Runa’s subsidiary company for all guayusa purchased directly from farms by the company’s collections trucks and motorcycles.  (Gage, MacCombie ect, Appendix C, 36) Farmer Associations will collectively decide how to use these funds to support their holistic development in the areas of health, education, environmental services, and leadership training.  The Runa Foundation will serve as a strategic partner for research, program design, monitoring, and evaluation. (Gage, Proposal, 3)

            In order to help indigenous communities adjust to managing larger streams of financial income from the sale of guayusa and from Social Premium Funds, Runa has incorporated money management and training programs. Runa partners with other organizations and small banks to train farmers in themes of savings, budgeting, community banks, and microcredit. Additionally Runa provides access to affordable and sustainable goods. Runa sells affordable solar panels, water filters, and very soon, reading glasses, to local communities, leveraging the power of bulk purchasing and their already existing distribution network of communities.  Farmers can trade a portion of their guayusa harvest for these tools, in addition to medical supplies and education materials in the future, at affordable prices. (Gage, Proposal, 3)

ENVIRONMENTALLY SUPPORTIVE LIVELIHOODS: Creating fertile social and environmental conditions to support capable local farmers in leading valued lives

            The environmental benefits of Runa’s business are clear. Ecuador is recognized by Unesco as one of the most bio-diverse habitats on the planet. Ecuadorian rain-forests convert large quantitates of carbon dioxide emissions into clean, breathable air each year and are home to 17% of the world’s bird species. A 2003 study conducted by Kristina Cockle from Daljousie University showed that shade-grown cultivation of a close relative of Illex Guayusa in the holly family, Illex Paraguariensis (yerba mate), can effectively rehabilitate cleared land and serve as an appropriate land-use buffer zone around ecological reserves in Argentina’s Atlantic Rainforest. (Cockle, 2003) Bird Conservancy societies including the Audobon society support shade grown yerba mate, cacao, and coffee cultivation because they provide ideal habitats for endangered bird species. Shade grown cultivation of forest products like coffee, cacao, as well as guayusa are some of the few  agrarian activities that are both ecologically sound and economically lucrative. (Gage, MacCombie ect. Appendix C, 34) As the demand for guayusa products increases, Runa will collaboratively create guayusa-based agroforestry plots around the Napo-Galeras National Park and the 290,707-hectare Llanganantes National Park in Eastern Ecuadro. Over 194 species of birds are documented to live in Llanganates National Park and sustainable buffer zones are needed to protect them from encroaching development and deforestation. (Gage MacCombie, Appendix C, 35)

            Additionally, Runa supports the creation of land management plans and access to additional income. Recently, Fundación Runa partnered with PROFORESTAL and Socio-Bosque, two government programs that offer economic incentives for reforestation and primary forest conservation.  Fundación Runa’s technicians teach communities about these little-known government programs and are helping several communities formulate land management plans to enter into the programs, in order to design holistic and diversified land management strategies for each farmer. (Gage, Proposal, 3-4)

            A primary program being initiated by Runa and Kichwa communities is a large scale reforestation program. Runa currently manages 5 nurseries of endangered forestry species, and has also began working in cooperation with Fundación Natura, Ecuador’s largest conservation NGO, to implement Land Use Buffer Zones using guayusa agroforestry around a 300 hectare preserve in Lago Agrio. Since beginning its work in June 2009, Runa has planted over 75,000 trees in more than 120 hectares of agroforesty plots. Runa will work with other government institutions and NGO’s to create Conservation Corridors around protected areas. (Gage, Proposal, 3-5)