Seed capital Income plan for Indigenous people helps lives and trees

'At the beginning, there was a lot of fear and disbelief," said Ketty Marcelo.

- Graeme Green

"There was a perception from the communities that this was another scam, that it was only looking to steal information or our integrity." Indigenous communities in the Amazon have grown weary of outsiders arriving with plans that could mean them losing their land or way of life. When a team from Cool Earth, a climate action NGO, came to the Amazon communities of central Peru in October 2022, locals were hesitant. "These fears caused some families not to participate," Marcelo said. "And we, as an organisation, were afraid this would be another project that would seek to impose activities without respecting the autonomy of the communities." But what developed instead was a collaboration between Cool Earth and two all-female Indigenous-led organisations - the National Organisation of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru (Onamiap), of which Marcelo is president, and the Organisation for Indigenous Women of the Central Selva of Peru (Omiaasec).

Together, they created a groundbreaking basic income pilot project to give £2 a daywith no strings attached - to 188 people across three Asháninka and Yánesha communities in the Avireri-Vraem reserve.