Taking on responsibility for their ancestral land, Chachi and Afro-Ecuadorians are now working together on the management of the buffer zone. Photo by Kimberly Conger © CARE 2001.

"These communities living in the reserve area have traditionally depended on the free use of the surrounding resources to survive," says Fanny Ramirez, a CARE SUBIR Project planner who lives 22 days a month in the RECC buffer zone. "So when creating reserves it's important to protect both the environment and the people already living there. The SUBIR Project has built on what they already have, starting with the land."

Taking on responsibility for their ancestral land, Chachi and Afro-Ecuadorians are now working together on the management of the buffer zone. Ecuadorian law states that people are entitled to land. But the river communities had no official boundary lines, partly because of their remoteness, and partly because of the law itself, which legitimizes land ownership by ethnicity. So, if a couple of Afro-Ecuadorian homes are in the middle of a Chachi community, or visa versa, the land can not be legalized.

From a conservation perspective, it is important the land be legalized to the indigenous peoples to prevent outsiders from taking it over, leading to slash and burn activities.

Over recent years, CARE and its local partner organization EcoCiencia have used the Global Positioning System to draw official community boundary lines for the first time. CARE also has trained and certified community paralegals to resolve ethnic conflicts and seek out government approval for official land titles. To date, 200,000 acres of land have been titled and presented to approximately 20 Chachi and Afro-Ecuadorian communities.

"To be a paralegal, the local community member must be able to read, write and speak both Spanish and their native language," says Jody Stallings, CARE SUBIR director. "The training is intense. They go through an eight-month study program. Half of the time is spent in the forest and half in Quito [the capital]. In the end, they are tested and certified as paralegals by the Quito Bar Association."

In the same spirit, CARE also trains community parabiologists and paraforesters.

"For these isolated communities, the rainforest is the only world that exists," says Damian Villacres, a forestry engineer with CARE's partner organization Jatun Sacha ("Big Forest" in the local dialect).

"Conservation may be for everyone's good, but those who depend on it in their daily lives are the best people to educate and they are the best at ensuring the long-term maintenance of these biological resources. That's why land titling is so important, to guarantee a sense of ownership. It was the number one request of these indigenous communities. Once that's established, the door is open, and we can work with them to create long-range conservation plans."

Taking on ownership and responsibility for their ancestral land, two unique cultures are now working together on the management of the buffer zone. This spirit of cooperation also has brought them together to work on their common social needs.

Please give us your feedback.