RFUK launches first partnership in Ecuador to help Indigenous communities protect forests and livelihoods
09 August 2026
On International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we are celebrating Indigenous leadership in forest stewardship through our new partnership with CorporaciĆ³n Chakra, an Indigenous-led organisation representing Kichwa communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon, supporting efforts to protect forests, strengthen sustainable livelihoods and safeguard traditional knowledge for future generations.
RFUK has taken an exciting step into Ecuador, launching a new partnership with CorporaciĆ³n Chakra, an Indigenous-led organisation working to protect one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests while strengthening sustainable livelihoods.
The collaboration marks RFUK's first programme in Ecuador and brings our ForestLink and ForestEye technologies to the Ecuadorian Amazon, where these tools will support Kichwa Indigenous communities to safeguard their forests, strengthen sustainable agriculture and respond to growing environmental threats.
Based in Tena, in Ecuador's Napo Province that serves as a gateway to the Amazon rainforest, CorporaciĆ³n Chakra represents five Kichwa Indigenous producer associations. The organisation connects these associations with universities and international partners, helping them access technical support, training and opportunities to strengthen both their agricultural production and community organisations.
At the heart of its work is the chakra ā a traditional Kichwa agroforestry system that has sustained Indigenous families for generations. Rather than clearing forests for large-scale agriculture, the chakra combines crops, fruit trees and native vegetation, creating productive landscapes that support food security while conserving biodiversity and maintaining the close relationship between Kichwa communities and the forest.
To recognise producers who uphold these values, CorporaciĆ³n Chakra created the Chakra Seal, a certification renewed every two years that guarantees products come from this ancestral production system. The certification reflects a simple principle, that farmers who protect forests while producing food should receive a fairer price for their products.
The partnership began with a three-day training workshop from 21 to 23 July, bringing together community monitors from the different producer associations to learn how to use ForestLink, monitor their territories and validate field data collection methods. During the workshop, CorporaciĆ³n Chakra also celebrated an important milestone, the fifth anniversary of becoming a legally established organisation, building on an initiative that has been growing for nine years.
Throughout August, the newly trained monitors will use ForestLink to map the production plots of 299 producers. By September, CorporaciĆ³n Chakra will take full ownership of both ForestLink and ForestEye, bringing together information from all five associations into a single platform. This represents a major step forward for the organisation.
The platforms will not only help map producers who have not yet been georeferenced but will also combine information from every association into one system. By overlaying this information with satellite-based deforestation monitoring, CorporaciĆ³n Chakra will be able to show that products carrying the Chakra Seal come from agroforestry systems that are deforestation-free and therefore able to meet requirements such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
The information will also help communities respond to increasingly urgent threats.
One of the producer associations is already experiencing rapid expansion of monoculture plantations, with companies clearing traditional chakras to grow taro, also known as malanga, a starchy root vegetable. Illegal mining is creating additional pressure, polluting rivers and encouraging outside actors to lease community land for short-term financial gain. For CorporaciĆ³n Chakra, protecting the chakra system means protecting much more than agricultural production. It means safeguarding forests, water sources, biodiversity and a way of life that has sustained Indigenous communities for generations.
By identifying where these threats are emerging, ForestLink will enable communities to monitor priority areas, generate reliable evidence and make informed decisions about how best to protect their territories.
With this pilot project only the beginning. RFUK and CorporaciĆ³n Chakra are already looking towards the next phase of our collaboration, which will explore stronger partnerships with Indigenous federations, local authorities and other organisations working across the landscape. Together, we aim to strengthen territorial governance and build communities' capacity to respond to the expanding pressures of monoculture agriculture and illegal mining.
As RFUK begins its work in Ecuador, this partnership shows how community-led technology can help Indigenous Peoples strengthen their own systems of forest stewardship, protect sustainable livelihoods and ensure that the forests they have cared for generations continue to thrive.
Our pilot in Ecuador is possible, in part, by the support of the Waterloo Foundation.
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