Lessons Learned from Developing Supply Chains Based on Indigenous Agroforestry and Community Forestry in Napo, Ecuador

This chapter analyzes the efforts of the hybrid nonprofit/for-profit organization RUNA to develop supply chains based on agroforestry and community forestry with the Amazonian Kichwa people of Napo Province, Ecuador. We base our analysis on a literature review, as well as the authors’ experience and ethnographic research. We argue that Indigenous land use practices, such as agroforestry systems (AFS), should be more strongly supported by governmental and nongovernmental entities. We describe the recent history of Napo, in the Upper Amazon of Ecuador, which has experienced in-migration, urbanization, and market integration and highlight the increased importance of smallholder agroforestry there. We then explain the Amazonian Kichwa AFS known as the chakra and its role in Indigenous landscape management. Next, we analyze the industry around the holly tree guayusa (Ilex guayusa Loes., Aquifoliaceae), which RUNA started building in 2009, as an example of an effort to develop a sustainable supply chain based on Indigenous smallholder AFS. We examine the challenges and complexities of organizing the industry in an equitable fashion and adapting production to supply chain demands. We describe supply chains that RUNA developed based on other AFS and forest products and identify lessons from the guayusa commercialization model that are relevant for supply chains based on similar products. We examine how strategies around multiple landscape management practices and supply chains might contribute to robust Indigenous livelihoods and integrated landscape management and conclude with policy recommendations for building sustainable and equitable supply chains based on Amazonian products.