Project Yawanawa: Indigenous-Led Food Sovereignty & Forest Restoration

Project Yawanawa is an Indigenous-led food sovereignty and forest restoration initiative in Mutum Village (Aldeia Mutum), Acre, within the Brazilian Amazon. The Yawanawá People collectively steward approximately 500,000 acres across 17 villages, and in Mutum we are collaborating to regenerate degraded lands impacted by logging, mining, ranching, rubber tapping, and extractive farming practices while strengthening daily food security.

People of the Forest works directly in council with Yawanawá chiefs, community leaders, and village members to co-design a community-led hybrid model grounded in the ethos that the Forest and its People are One Living System. Our project has three integrated goals: regenerative food systems (agroforestry and aquaculture), native plant reforestation, and education, with education embedded in every step of design and implementation.

To date, we established and expanded a 10,000 sq ft agroforestry demonstration plot, planting thousands of ancestral seeds and 600+ tree species, and training 20+ Yawanawá community members who receive monthly stipends for ongoing maintenance, learning, and stewardship. We support continuity through an in-country agroforestry partner that visits every three months for training, data collection, and maintenance, while our team conducts two annual field visits for major implementation pushes.

Next, we will expand agroforestry into wider community areas and household kitchen gardens, build propagation nurseries for native species, and begin the community-led design of aquaculture fish ponds to further strengthen food sovereignty. Education remains central through a train-the-trainers approach, scholarships for emerging Indigenous leaders to learn at established agroforestry schools in Brazil, and workshops/webinars to share learning across bioregions. We also document progress through film and Indigenous filmmaking mentorship so the Yawanawá can share their story through their own lens—supporting transparency, culture, and outreach.