YOUNG WARRIORS OF THE FOREST IN SEARCH OF A BETTER

FUTURE (UPPER JURU RIVER AMAZON - BRAZIL)

Benki Piyanko Ashaninka & rika Fernandes-Pinto
Located in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, in
one of the most biodiverse regions of the world,
near the Brazilian border with Peru, the
municipality of Marechal Taumaturgo/Acre State,
has also a great richness in socio-cultural diversity,
represented by indigenous peoples, riparian
communities, rubber traps and family farmers, a
midst a territory that consists predominantly of
protected areas.

Created in October 2004, coming together voluntarily, aggregating roughly 30 young people, the
group "Young Warriors of the Forest in Search of a Better Future" has been operating under the
guidance of the indigenous leader and agroforestry agent Benki Piyanko Ashaninka, combining
conservation and environmental recovery with an appreciation for the human spirit and the
forest.
In late 2012, the group was formalized by creating a legally constituted association. Currently, this
association is building a center, named "The Hummingbird's Dream at the Sun's Ray," directed to
organize, train, and empower young leaders from this municipality, while, simultaneously,
employing ecological restoration models, development practices, and sustainable production and
management. Likewise, they are recovering and adopting traditional knowledge and valuing
various traditional medicines and spiritual practices that are associated with the conservation of
nature.
Tracaja
(turtle)
management

Despite its bio-cultural wealth, this region lacks alternative job options that place value on the
forest and traditional knowledge, and is now one of Brazil's municipalities with one of the
highest levels of social deprivation and one of the lowest indexes of human development. The
lack of socially and environmentally sustainable economic alternatives, combined with
pressures induced by population growth, changes in occupations and land uses, as well as
dynamic border relations, threatens the integrity of the protected territories and place the
survival of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples from this region at risk.
Despite advances made in methods of social organization and the achievements of popular
movements, associations and community organizations still find difficulties in preparing and
proposing projects intended to manage and regulate public policies. Young people, especially,
are suffering from the consequences of these processes; from the lack of job opportunities and
the continued loss of social and cultural values, which generate further environmental and
cultural degradation.

Rescuing and adapting the traditional knowledge,

managing and recovering the forest and rivers,
creating food sustainability

Apiculture
of native
bees

The center is being constructed in a land reform settlement, which currently is being utilized as
pasture lands for cattle production. This initiative will help disseminate new practices and new
ways of relating with nature, to families residing in this region. This project is part of a collective
dream, a product of the union and work of young Amazonian Brazilians who are building not only
their futures, but setting an example for all mankind.
Valuing traditional medicine and
spiritual pratices connecting people
and nature for a new consciousness

But, by the strength of the forest and from the people who have fought against these models
and continue to resist them, there sprouts seeds for the possibility of another path. These seeds
have found rich and fertile soil in the hearts of young people with values, warriors in search of a
better future, who have united to build a collective project geared to restore social, economic,
environmental, and cultural sustainability.

benkipiyanko@yahoo.com.br
erikalencois@yahoo.com.br