ABOUT OUR COLLABORATIVE

INTRODUCTION

Amazon Wakani is a grass roots organization that protects and sustains the Achual people, their customs, traditions and rainforest lands. These people live along the banks of an Amazon tributary in Peru.

We believe, as the Achuales, that “The Dream” has us. This belief means that things unfold rather than “making” them happen. We do not have individual goals, we are community, interwoven together, the forest teaches us, and we listen to what she is dreaming into existence.

The forest, through the “call” of the Shaman and Apu, has summoned us to work in its behalf. Hearing this call to ensure the continuation of the Achual heritage and the protection of their lands, a number of alliances have been developed. These alliances assist to balance the modern world with the traditions of the Achual. We are pioneering a balance between the modern world and Achual values. But, we have no roadmaps, and must rely on each other, the Dream and the people of the forest.

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SOCIAL VALUES OF OUR ORGANIZATION

Our collabrative operates within the same social values as those we espouse for our projects. We are united under an ecological vision, based in the ethic of caring for the Earth and her People. Our practices are built upon a common commitment to collaborative problem solving, respect for diversity and traditional heritage while honoring 21st century scientific ingenuity. Applied permaculture is a diverse set of practices linked by the ethics of: care of the earth, care of people, the sharing of resources to help others achieve their needs while reducing consumption. It is not an ideology, nor a dogma based in a specific cultural context. Rather, it is a group of useful concepts for the design of sustainable systems in any biophysical, socioeconomic or cultural context, always based in an understanding of the local ecosystem, traditions, culture and indigenous knowledge.

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ALLIANCES

Our collaboration is diverse but aligned through our common faith in humanity and respect for each other, to work together seeking in our alliance to enhance life on earth for all.

The Achual Sustainable Harvests Project’s alliance includes, The Ethnic (or Achual) Council which represents the diversity of the village. It includes one representative of inter-marriage, two traditional Apus (Chiefs), one second generation pure Achual grandson, and one Quechua. RedPAL-Peru representatives are also diverse: One Peruvian, educated in organizational skills and permaculture, and one Shipibo native, representing indigenous activists who are also educated in permaculture. From Amazon Wakani, a Russian-American woman anthropologist, with over 14 years experience in this Achual Village and The Institute for Cultural Ecology (ICE), represents social justice programs worldwide.The Achual Sustainable Arts Project’s partners include two women from the microfinance profession with experience in women’s projects, art from around the world and non-profit organizational work. These partners collaboratively work with the Achual women, Amazon Wakani and RedPAL-Peru. The Achual Healing Arts consists of a number of volunteers and alternative holistic health practitioners from around the world. They work in alliance with the Shaman to sustain his medicinal plant practices and traditions of his people. Acting as a bridge to the modern world they, through their healing crafts, express the urgent need to protect the medicinal wisdom and indigenous cultures of our Amazon rainforests.

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PARTNERS

RedPAL-Peru provides on-site administration for the Achual Sustainable Harvests Project’s day to day operations. Founded in 1999 in Yarinacocha, Pucallpa, Perú, its mission is to help establish economically and ecologically sustainable communities that strike a balance in the use of their natural resources to ensure both the livelihoods of the community members and the long-term protection of the biodiversity and cultural traditions in the Peruvian Amazon. RedPAL-Peru is a part of Permacultura America Latina, www.permacultura.org, the Latin American Permaculture Network with a 15 year history of successful indigenous projects throughout Latin America.

RedPAL-Peru members include Limber Cabrera, Executive Director and administrative lead, plus permaculture advisor to the project. Born in the Peruvian Amazon, he completed Permaculture School in Piernopolis Brazil. In 1999, he co-founded RedPAL-Peru, a Shipibo organization formed around the Permaculture Americana Latino (PAL) projects.

Marco Urquia, a Shipibo native with a degree from the Brazilian Institute of Permacultura of the Amazonia and in Agriculture from the Agrarian University of Tingo María, Huanuco, Peru, is president/co-founder of RedPAL-Peru. He has 11 years experience with indigenous Peruvian permaculture programs and serves as project technical advisor. www.redpalperu.com.

Amazon Wakani founder, Bea Agins M.A., has lived and worked with the Achuales in the Peruvian Amazon for fourteen years sustaining their medicinal plant practices, traditions and rainforest lands. She is a Cultural Anthropologist and Naturopath, a philanthropist in support of indigenous peoples and their land rights, and is viewed as a Shaman in the village as well as being referred to as Madre.

The Ethnic Council serves as the Achual Project Advisory Board. Members include: Ramon Arahuanaza, (Elder Apu or Chief), the village founder, and only Shaman. Sergio Arahuanaza, (2nd Apu), Eulogio De Aguila, (village governor) Tito De Aguila, Remberto Nacimento and Natividad Arahuanaza, daughter of the Apu, only single head of household in the village acting as voice for the women.

Institute for Cultural Ecology (ICE)
Brian Hill, is the Executive Director of ICE. He is an advisor to the project and has degrees in Sociology, Archeology and Anthropology with 40 years of success in the US and Latin America establishing socially conscious/ecologically sustainable practices and industries. He participated in the UN NGO movement during its most productive stage in the 1990’s; he is a founder of bioregionalism, the new responsible mining movement. He is a founder and owner of Living Tree Paper – www.livingtreepaper.com – and EcoEra/La Posada Quepoa – www.ecoera.org He is an early partner of the very progressive Analog Forestry – www.analogforestrynet.org – ecosystem management process which is practiced in numerous countries now.

Microenterprise Professionals: Laura Hoover and Patricia Restaino are providing their services for the benefit of the Achual Sustainable Arts Collective, a women’s microenterprise project. Laura is an independent consultant specializing in microfinance and microenterprise development and is an active member of the Northern California chapter of Women Advancing Microfinance. Patricia is a teacher and is currently completing a Masters in Cultural Anthropology. She provides microfinance training for low income women in Oakland and San Francisco and has participated with microfinance organizations in Central and South America. Together, Laura and Patricia co-founded Art from the Globe, a business which partners with artisans around the world to market their hand-made products. Patricia is founder of Global Connections.

Holistic Health Practioners: alternative healing professionals who are volunteers and have worked with the tribe for several years. They provide healing clinics and are learning some of the traditional medicinal practices of the Shaman.

Anastacia Metcalf, Wellness Educator, Coach and Consultant travels the world teaching life transformation skills through bodymind awareness. She has been volunteering in the village for over ten years and has helped coordinate groups of healers who have visited the village to provide the healing clinics.

Denni Adamson is a clinical practitioner and coordinator for a hospital based in-patient massage program in California. She has been volunteering in the village for over 8 years. There are a number of other volunteers whose practices include Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Physical and Metaphysical Therapies as well as other forms of alternative healing.

Rainforest Guide and Interpreter, Jose Luis Valles, has been working for Amazon Wakani for 12 years in a variety of capacities: jungle guide, translator of several languages and cultural advisor.

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FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR

Bea Agins, MA, is founder and director of Amazon Wakani, formerly The Achual Healing Arts Project, which has been in existence since 1994. She has lived and worked with the Achuales in the Peruvian Amazon for over fourteen years sustaining their traditions and protecting their rights. The Achual Tribal Counsel has entrusted Bea to be their spokesperson here in the United States and to act as their steward. Bea is also a philanthropist in support of indigenous people and their land rights and is viewed as a shaman in the Achual village of New Jerusalem. She has as a Masters Degree in Organizational Development, from the University of San Francisco and a BA in Cultural Anthropology. She has studied Naturopathic Endocrinology at the National Institute for Endocrine Research. Her publications include Of Earth and Sky, Anthropology in Education and the Achual Medicinal Plants Handbook. Prior to Bea’s founding of Amazon Wakani she ran a successful management consulting practice with clients including Intel, Apple, First Chicago Bank, Texas Comptrollers Division, Wells Fargo Bank and PacBell.

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ADVISORY BOARD

	Bob Graham has been active in microcredit work in Central America for more than 20 years as founder of the Katalysis Partnership and NamasteDirect. He has also been working in the Mayan community of Guatemala in economic development during that period (www.namaste-direct.org)
	Andrew Beath, is the founder of EarthWays (www.earthways.org), which has initiated many projects to protect wilderness and assist threatened indigenous communities in South and North America. He is also the founder of Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs and has also started two environmental education centers for conscious activism. He is also the founder and president of SEE – Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs (www.saveourplanet.org) whose mission is “to nurture and encourage ecological and humanitarian activism and education for the purpose of creating a more harmonious civilization for all.”
	Martha DiSario has twenty years of experience in international, national and industry communications. She owns Pacific Communications Group, a PR and marketing firm that advances cleantech growth companies and products. For ten years prior, she headed communications at a federal agency as a Presidential appointee in the Clinton Administration and for U.S. Senator John Glenn and the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. She also led external and media relations for INTELSAT, the global telecommunications satellite network. A life-long environmental advocate, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Rainforest Action Network. (www.ran.org)
	Harold Erdman received his BA from Yale University, and a MS in Clinical Psychology and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently a member of the Sustainable Planet Grant Committee of the Threshold Foundation (www.thresholdfoundation.org). Harold is a retired software engineer, with thirty-five years experience in health care information systems, including design, development, implementation and evaluation. He and his wife Christy are world travelers.
	Dr. Patrick O’Heffernan is founder of InTheStudio.com productions (www.inthepodstudio.com) and a blogger and podcaster on Socialedge.org (www.socialedge.org),the Skoll Foundation's online community where he writes the popular DR.O on Fundraising blog. Patrick pioneered the use of global television advocacy advertising with campaigns for the UN Conferences on the Environment in Rio and on Population and Development in Cairo. He funded and helped launch the North Asia Nuclear Free Zone back channel diplomacy project which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. He has been awarded an Emmy, a Webby Honors Award, four Telly Awards, the Diamond Award from the Egyptian National Association for Planning on the Environment and named an Economic Fellow by the Japanese government. A national figure in the social entrepreneur community, he serves on the Board of the Center for Partnership Studies, the Nameste Direct Foundation and the Advisory Boards of the New Leadership Council and Netroots Nation. With a career in the non profit world that stretches back 1972, Patrick has worked with non profits, foundations, social entrepreneurs, the UN and other international organizations.
	Tracy Solum is Rainforest Action Network's Protect-an-Acre Program Manager. The Protect-an-Acre program provides small grants to Indigenous and other forest-based communities to help them gain control of and sustainably manage their traditional territories. (www.ran.org/campaigns/protect_an_acre/)
	Christine A Rowe Ed.D owner of Los Padres Consulting, brings over 20 years’ success as a program and development consultant with service and member-based organizations, small businesses, non-profits, and educational programs in project design, implementation, sustainability and evaluation. Accomplishments include successful administration and monitoring of projects, meeting reporting requirements for strategic plans, grant funding, progress and annual reports, grants-teams development, need/resource assessments, collaborative partner and audience development as well as professional coaching and training.
	Lynn Gutstadt is a experienced media and marketing research professional, former VP Audience Research at CNN, Director of Corporate Research at CBS Interactive. Independent consultant on media research and marketing communications. Lynn is also a member of the Program Advisory Board for the Population Media Center, and a Media Advisor to the Center for Partnership Studies (Riane Eisler, Chairman/Founder), and the Namaste Direct Foundation. She holds a BA from the University of California and a MA in Communications from Stanford University.
	Brian Hill is the Executive Director of ICE. and has degrees in Sociology, Archeology and Anthropology with 40 years of success in the US and Latin America establishing socially conscious/ecologically sustainable practices and industries. He participated in the UN NGO movement during its most productive stage in the 1990’s; he is a founder of bioregionalism, the new responsible mining movement. He is an early partner of the very progressive Analog Forestry – www.analogforestrynet.org – ecosystem management process which is practiced in numerous countries now.
	Anastacia Metcalf has known the people of Nueva Jerusalen for over 10 years. She has 25 years of team management business experience, 11 years of non-profit collective experience, 10 years Providing Wellness Education to groups and individuals throughout the world. Anastacia has been affiliated with the Achual Healing Arts, Achual Sustainable Harvests and Amazon Wakani since their inception.
	Denni Adamson, A Holistic Health Advisor, began volunteering with The Achual Healing Art's Project in 2000. She has a degree from U.C. Davis in Environmental Planning and Management and worked in the field of Horticulture for over 25 years. In addition, she has 10 years of team management business experience and 3 years non-profit experience in integrative medicine. She is currently a clinical practitioner and coordinator for a hospital based in-patient massage program in California.
	Mary Cosgrove has been a supporter of Amazon Wakani for 10 years. In addition to her 20 years of technology experience, primarily in QA consulting in the corporate setting, she is also a practicing massage therapist and energy worker. For the past 5 years, her work in the non-profit world has ranged from office administration to web and database management. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Connecticut.
	Jose Carlos Silva Macher an engineer with 10 years experience in the environmental management consultancy since 1996, has achieved an MSc in Environment and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He became a teacher of environment and natural resources economics at the Department of Economics of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). Currently Jose is writing a PhD thesis on ecological economics at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), this work is possible due to a scholarship Russell E. Train – Education for Nature from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The main objective is to contribute to the understanding of society and environment relations in Peru, with a special focus on history and social conflicts in the Amazon Rain Forest. The research methodology is based on the concept of social metabolism; a metaphor that assesses the material and energy flows between society (the organism) and nature.