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Paper short abstract:

On the background of multiple crises, this paper critically explores these promises of reviving and revalorising the traditional indigenous agroforestry system in the Ecuadorian Amazon - the 'chakra' - as a sustainable development mechanism of benefit to indigenous communities, especially women.

Paper long abstract:

Mostly restricted from access to their traditional territories, indigenous Amazonians in Ecuador (as elsewhere) are increasingly dependent on the national and global economy. Since the 1970s, subsistence livelihoods have given way to devastating resource extraction industries, increasing colonisation, urbanisation, and agri-monocultures with associated levels of deforestation. The land has been parcelled up – disregarding traditional property relations, access and transit routes – and the rivers polluted. Local communities are under severe pressure as their soil, water, community, and individual health decline dramatically through decades of 'development'. Additionally, their resilience is undermined by increasingly severe climate change effects (floods and droughts).

In response, government officials, aid agencies, indigenous federations and the private sector have recently come together to revive, revalorise and reinvent the traditional indigenous agroforestry system – the ‘chakra’ – as a sustainable and economically viable production unit governed by women. The ‘chakra model’ responds directly to multiple crises and holds promises of prosperity and a resilient, just and culturally appropriate food system.

Reporting back from ethnographic fieldwork and the first year of a participatory video project, we critically explore these promises in their historical and socio-ecological context, inquiring into the opportunities and challenges of developing agroforestry value chains in the complex Upper Napo region. We focus particularly on the impact this development has on traditional knowledges and foodways, as well as gender and other power relations.