Stewards of Sustainability: Healing Land, Healing Community, Healing the World
By Kirthi Jayakumar
Tukupu, once the residence of the Indigenous Kariña community, sprawled across the Imataca Forest Reserve. The rich tropical trees nurtured a whole ecosystem of flora and fauna within for generations before large-scale mining, hunting, and tree felling led to their disappearance. However, the Kariña people have worked hard to hold onto their forestlands and to preserve their ways of life – including making space for nature to recuperate as they move from site to site.
Known as Tukupu, they continue to live according to their traditions, striving not to allow external parties to get involved in any capacity. Alongside them, drawing from their ancestral knowledge, women steward another Tukupu – Venezuela’s first Indigenous forest business, through which they sustainably manage and reforest as many as 7,000 hectares of land granted to them by the Venezuelan government, in the Imataca Forest Reserve. Through their efforts, the women have been able to avoid over 23 million tonnes of carbon emissions (Arellano, 2022). The founding member of the initiative, Cecilia Rivas, was elected by her people as the captain of the initiative.
The beginnings
Home to rich biodiversity and natural resources, the Imataca Forest Reserve was established in 1961 across nearly 40,000 square kilometres of land. The forest houses 168 species of mammals, 614 species of birds, 358 species of fish, 119 species of reptiles, and 76 species of amphibians (Arellano, 2022). Companies in the region began to extract the resources from the forest without consent or respect for the needs of the Kariña people. Recognizing the need to protect their forestlands, the Kariña people reached out to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 2016, which responded favourably (Arellano, 2022; FAO, 2021). This marked the start of their collaboration. Local community members were consulted. Women from the community took the first step by organizing themselves to set up the first nurseries, called conucos. In these nurseries, they grew food and useful plants to restore areas that had been destroyed by extractive practices (FAO, 2021).
Following this, the business was formally established under the name of Tukupu. In 2020, the Government of Venezuela, through the Ministry of Eco-Socialism, granted the business 7,000 hectares of land (Arellano, 2022). This catalysed the creation of a joint administration of the land. The women organized training and development programs for other women in the community, to acquire skills for the conservation and development of the biodiversity in the region (FAO, 2021).
Healing the land, sustaining community
Tukupu has been steadfast in its focus on protecting the land and its resources, while also bearing in mind that the initiative needs to be sustained on a long-term basis (FAO, 2021). Accordingly, they focused on identifying ways to commercialize resources from the forest. They began by dividing up areas and elements (wood and non-wood) within the forests into sections that can be extracted and commercialized (Arellano, 2022). They entered into agreements with private companies for men in their community, called Kariñakon, to be involved in processing the wood. They produce material that can be used for boards, planks, and strips for carpentry (Arellano, 2022).
In addition, to prioritize food security, they have set aside 189 hectares of land to develop agroforestry practices to cultivate agricultural crops and other traditional plants. They’ve also developed seeds that can be sown during the rainy season (Arellano, 2022; UNSDG, 2021).
Even as the commercialization proceeds, Tukupu is actively involved in evaluating the stock and flow of greenhouse gases in the region (UNSDG, 2021). By paying attention to this, Tukupu has managed to avoid as much as 23 million tonnes of carbon emissions. It also protects and benefits 12 Kariña communities – which covers 1511 people, of which 58% are women (Arellano, 2022).
Lessons for Feminist Foreign Policy
Through collective stewardship, participation, and sharing of both responsibilities and benefits, Tukupu creates meaningful impacts for the environment, the land itself, their community history, and for the larger region in itself. The model of co-management of the forests is fully informed by the worldview of the Indigenous people, and centred the visions, ideas, and opinions of the people living there. In doing so, they move away from extractive practices, recognize the value of intragenerational equity, and centre a commitment to sharing of power.
Tukupu is a powerful initiative that not only protects and nurtures the environment, and draws from the wisdom of indigenous women and their leadership, but also demonstrates to the world what it means to live one with nature, to not extract but to use what it has to offer, and to protect the forest so it endures for long.
References
Arellano, A. (2022). Tukupu: The women of the Kariña community, guardians of Venezuela’s forests. https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/tukupu-the-women-of-the-karina-community-guardians-of-venezuelas-forests/
FAO (2021). The female guardians of Venezuela’s Imataca Forest Reserve. https://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1318734/
UNSDG (2021). Indigenous people: Women take the lead in and out of their communities. https://unsdg.un.org/latest/stories/indigenous-people-women-take-lead-and-out-their-communities
