Voices from the Territories: Results and Impacts of the Small Grants Mechanism

Ucayali, Loreto, and San Martín make up the core of the Peruvian Amazon, a territory that covers 60% of the country and is home to nearly 4 million people. Loreto safeguards the Amazon basin and vast wetlands; Ucayali is a vital biodiversity corridor and river connection; while San Martín, a transition zone between high and lowland rainforest, combines unique ecosystems with agricultural production. In Ecuador, the Amazon covers almost half of the country and is one of the most biodiverse territories on the planet. Approximately 1.5 million people live there, including eleven Indigenous nationalities who maintain their own worldviews. Throughout the Latin American Amazon region, Indigenous peoples preserve languages, spiritual practices, and sustainable management systems, making this territory a fundamental space for global climate balance.

In Central America, Puerto Lempira, the capital of the Gracias a Dios department in the Honduran Mosquitia region, is home to the largest population of manatees and protects the country's largest coastal lagoon. With more than 61,000 inhabitants, its economy is based primarily on fishing and subsistence agriculture. The region, inhabited mostly by the Miskito people, not only preserves a rich cultural heritage but also constitutes a reservoir of biodiversity essential to Honduras and the ecological balance of all of Central America.

Even so, these communities face significant threats: deforestation and pollution, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, illegal activities, a lack of basic services, the criminalization of human rights defenders, the exclusion of women from decision-making spaces, barriers to access to justice, poor infrastructure, and a lack of consultation regarding extractive projects.

Faced with these difficulties, communities are advancing territorial governance and collective organization processes, building alternatives that strengthen their cohesion, revalue ancestral practices, and open spaces for dialogue between generations. More and more women and young people are speaking out and taking on leadership roles, promoting social and economic empowerment and ensuring the continuity of their culture. At the same time, community communication networks are being strengthened, making their demands visible, influencing public policies, sharing lessons learned, and connecting with other territories in the region.

Results and Impacts of the Small Grants Mechanism

In response to the growing need to empower Indigenous and local communities in sustainable resource management and environmental justice, the Regional Voices Project "Advancing towards effective conservation and territorial management with a rights-based approach: strengthening regional Indigenous cooperation in Latin America," funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), promotes the integration of rights-based approaches in the conservation and sustainable management of Indigenous territories in Latin America.

The initiative articulates four lines of action: Support for local governance, Social and economic empowerment, Communication and advocacy, and Knowledge management and experience sharing. Within this framework, the Small Grants Mechanism was created to support projects led by Indigenous peoples and allied organizations, strengthening local capacities for territorial defense, conservation, and advocacy.

In 2024 and 2025, eleven organizations in Ecuador, Peru, and Honduras implemented projects with the support of this mechanism, achieving positive impacts in their communities.
 

Support for local governance

ORAU

Four organizations—two in Peru and two in Ecuador—led initiatives to strengthen community organization, participation, and coordination in response to the threats facing their territories.

In Peru, the Aidesep Ucayali Regional Organization (ORAU) implemented the Protection Paths project, with Traveling Schools that trained more than 190 people in territorial security and rights defense. Through the use of satellite maps and ancestral knowledge, surveillance and protection strategies were articulated, while promoting the leadership of women and youth. In parallel, the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities of Peru (CONAP) strengthened Indigenous governance through digital forest monitoring. Through the training of 18 Communal Surveillance Committees, the creation of monitoring protocols, and the active participation of women, tools for territorial management and the protection of Amazonian forests were consolidated.

In Ecuador, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) carried out the Guardians of the Amazon project, which brought together 23 Indigenous organizations to strengthen governance and communication as a strategy for territorial protection. More than 1,500 communities represented by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE) benefited through the implementation of community protocols in three pilot communities, an interactive digital map, and the production of communication content. The project benefited 1,500 communities represented by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENIAE). The Populorum Progressio Ecuadorian Fund (FEPP) supported the Cofán community of Upiritu Kankhe in developing its Territorial Defense Agenda and creating the A'TSE AMUNKA Women's Association. Through workshops on leadership, governance, and productive knowledge, the women strengthened their organizational and cultural roles, generating exchanges with other associations in Sucumbíos.

"This Territorial Defense Agenda was developed, which seeks to empower the entire community and also to secure the commitment of external institutions to contribute to the defense of that territory, especially in the conservation of its natural resources, the preservation of its culture, and the exercise of the rights of Indigenous peoples."

-Pilar Guarnizo - FEPP (Ecuador)
 

Communication and advocacy

IPSA

Along these strategic lines, three organizations from Peru and Ecuador strengthened community media, consolidated their own narratives, and promoted the political advocacy of Amazonian indigenous communities. In Peru, the Institute for the Promotion of Social Work in the Amazon (IPSA) – Radio Ucamara created a network of correspondents in Nauta that highlights local knowledge and issues from a gender and territorial perspective. Its results include more than 50 reports reflecting the communities' daily lives, challenges, and forms of resistance, knowledge-sharing meetings in the Kukama language, journalism workshops with a gender and environmental perspective, and the integration of schools and youth groups to generate dialogue on the protection of the river and the territory.

Servicios en Comunicación Intercultural (SERVINDI), also in Peru, strengthened networks of indigenous communicators in San Martín and Ucayali through workshops on security, journalism, and advocacy, creating a collective intercultural security protocol, research plans, and dissemination strategies to address threats such as illegal logging. The inclusion of young female communicators made it possible to mainstream the gender perspective in these investigations.

"In this project, we focused the final campaign on the topic of biodiversity protection as a strategy to highlight the need to protect forests. Talking about deforestation that affects animals isn't the same as talking about the white-lipped peccary or the pink dolphin. We believe this way the topic resonates better with the public."

-Jorge Agurto - SERVINDI (Peru)

In Ecuador, the Coordinator of Community, Popular, and Educational Media (CORAPE) promoted the Ecuadorian Women Communicators Network: The Voice of the Amazon, strengthening a network of indigenous women communicators who produce environmental content in native languages ​​with a gender and intercultural perspective. Twenty-three women from five communities created the collective podcast Raíces Afaye, promoting the visibility of environmental issues through women's voices and strengthening intergenerational technical, journalistic, and communication skills.

Social and economic empowerment 

Pilar Cáceres/IUCN

In different parts of Peru, Ecuador, and Honduras, four organizations have launched productive initiatives that combine sustainability, the recovery of ancestral knowledge, and the strengthening of community organizations.

In Ucayalí, Peru, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon of the Atalaya Province (URPIA) combined community surveillance with Amazonian fish farming, creating a model that protects the forest while also paving the way for economic self-sufficiency. Today, they have three active fish farms, housing more than 3,000 Amazonian fish (paco). In Loreto, Peru, the Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) implemented the "Native Bees" project, which revived Kichwa and Maijuna beekeeping, transmitting knowledge between generations and turning beekeeping into a source of sustainable income. Fifteen technologically advanced hives were installed in five Kichwa communities.

In Pastaza, Ecuador, Kichwa ceramists, with the support of the Sinchi Sacha Foundation, strengthened their identity and self-esteem by consolidating their mukawa production, positioning their art at national and international fairs with the sale of more than 700 pieces, each a symbol of memory and culture.

Meanwhile, in Honduras, Miskito women from Mairin Indian Miskitu Asla Takanka (MIMAT) led a comprehensive waste management process in Puerto Lempira, protecting the Karataska lagoon system and transforming waste into organic fertilizer, benefiting 105 families with community collection services.

"The cleanup of the Puerto Lempira lagoon system benefits sixty women directly, and their children and grandchildren, as indirect beneficiaries, also participate in various stages of the harvest."

-Yolanny Cooper - President of MIMAT (Honduras)

Results, Challenges, and Projections

Thanks to the Voices Project's Small Grants Mechanism, communities in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, as well as in the Honduran Moskitia, have seen positive changes in their territories. Experiences show that when communities are protagonists, paths of hope open up: women, youth, and older adults share their knowledge, strengthen their voices, and build productive alternatives that sustain life and defend their territories. The main lessons highlight the value of partnerships and communication as a force that unites communities, strengthens their advocacy capacity, and amplifies their voices beyond their territories. Added to this is the urgency of considering long-term sustainability and consolidating training and rights awareness processes, which are essential for protecting against threats and defending life in their territories. All of this converges in a shared certainty: without the active participation of women and youth, there is no possible future for Indigenous governance or environmental justice.

The challenges are also clear: scaling up these initiatives, ensuring stable funding, and implementing public policies that respect rights and recognize and strengthen the role of Indigenous peoples in the conservation and care of their territories. But every step taken demonstrates that it is possible: from the fish farms in Ucayali, the beehives of Loreto, the ceramists of Pastaza, or the Miskito women who transform waste into life. Today, more than ever, there is a call to continue supporting the defense of rights and territories. Because protecting the Amazon and the Moskitia is not only a commitment to those who inhabit them, but to the entire planet.

We invite you to watch the video summary of the Programme's main results.

🌍 Learn more about these projects and their results by exploring the StoryMaps here: https://arcg.is/14ODfb1 

References

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Franco, W., & Álvarez, S. (2019). La biodiversidad de la Amazonía ecuatoriana y su relevancia global: ¿Podrán ser detenidos los procesos que conducen a su degradación y extinción? En Investigación y desarrollo: Cooperación Española con el sistema de investigación, desarrollo e innovación en Ecuador (pp. 118–133). Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID). Recuperado de https://tinyurl.com/ymyzfjtm   

Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). (2019). Municipio de Puerto Lempira, año 2018. https://temp.ine.gob.hn/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Puerto-Lempira-Gracias-a-Dios-2018.pdf 

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC). (2023). Censo de Población y Vivienda 2022. https://www.censoecuador.gob.ec/  

Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., da Fonseca, G. A., & Kent, J. (2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403(6772), 853–858. https://doi.org/10.1038/35002501

Organizaciones beneficiarias del Mecanismo de Pequeñas Donaciones del proyecto Voces 2024. (2025). Informes técnicos en el marco del proyecto del Mecanismo de Pequeñas Donaciones, 2024–2025 del proyecto VOCES - UICN.

Pigrau i Solé, A. (2014). The Texaco-Chevron case in Ecuador: Law and justice in the age of globalization (Research Paper No. RP0041). Universitat Rovira i Virgili. https://repositori.urv.cat/estatic/RP0041/es_RP973.html   

Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada (RAISG). (2022, 3 de marzo). Ecuador se erige con una victoria histórica para las comunidades indígenas. https://www.raisg.org/es/radar/ecuador-se-erige-con-una-victoria-historica-para-las-comunidades-indigenas/   

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. (2022). Perfil sociodemográfico de Puerto Lempira, Gracias a Dios 2022. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (IIES-UNAH). https://www.studocu.com/latam/document/universidad-nacional-autonoma-de-honduras/procesos-socilaes/reporte-de-0901-gracias-a-dios-puerto-lempira/71162270