Since 2021, the Indigenous Amazon Women’s Fellowship has been supporting indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon, providing them with funds and tools to implement conservation projects that positively impact their communities, while strengthening their leadership and helping to reduce existing gender gaps.
In the Centro Arenal native community, located in the province of Maynas, in the north Eastern Peruvian Amazon, Zoila Ochoa is working on a valuable legacy for coming generations. In 2022, through the funds awarded by the program, Zoila improved the “Murui Bue Autonomous School” which she had previously built to promote intercultural education in her community. The Murui Bue school seeks to recover and teach others her native language, traditional practices and ancestral knowledge, strengthen indigenous identity and promote good environmental practices.
Murui Bue Autonomous School
Zoila's motivation stems from her desire to reclaim her language, culture and identity, which were marginalized and forbidden during the rubber era; a period experienced by her father, who, as a consequence, did not pass on his traditions to Zoila and her siblings.
Today, with the school in place, more and more children, youth and adults are reconnecting with their roots. “When I started this there was only one person who spoke our language, even I didn't know it. Now there are 30 of us who speak Murui Bue. That gives me a lot of hope. Our culture is important because it is ours,” says Zoila.
Thanks to this project, the women of her community have generated interest in rescuing their medicinal plants and enhancing their territory. Thus, Mujer Semilla (Woman Seed), or ido riño in her native tongue, was born; a communal initiative led by 12 women from the Centro Arenal who, through education and the conservation of their communal forest, are fighting the challenges posed by their proximity to the city of Iquitos; urban growth and deforestation.
Reforestation plot
Currently, Mujer Semilla, with the support of Conservation International, has managed to reforest half a hectare of degraded forest under agroforestry systems with timber, fruit and medicinal plants, key in the preservation of their ancestral knowledge and practices. In addition, a maloca, the first Murui Bue maloca, has been built to continue reproducing their cultural manifestations and become a meeting place for the community.
All these elements are contemplated in an ecotourism route which has begun to attract the attention of different institutions, NGOs and tourists, generating economic income for the families that allows them to improve their livelihoods, especially their food security.
These efforts to revalue the Murui Bue culture through Mujer Semilla is slowly gaining recognition as an innovative solution to protect forests and enhance the leadership of indigenous women.
Maloca Murui Bue