At Yunkawasi, conservation is not only about protecting forests and wildlife: it’s about people cultures, and territories. Our work in the Andean-Amazonian landscapes of Peru has shown us that biodiversity cannot thrive without equity, diversity, and inclusion at its heart.
That’s why in 2025, we launched our first Institutional Policy on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). This is not a side note, it is a core pillar of how we build conservation that lasts.
Why does this matter?
Conservation efforts often fail when they ignore social realities. In Peru, women, especially rural and Indigenous women who in Peru spend an average of 39 hours per week on unpaid care work (INEI, 2023), carry a disproportionate burden of care and face deep economic and social inequities. Indigenous peoples, youth, and LGTBIQ+ communities are too often excluded from decision-making spaces, despite being key stewards of forests and cultural knowledge. Without addressing these inequities, conservation remains fragile.
Our EDI Policy changes this. It sets standards for:
- Inclusive recruitment and leadership, ensuring more women, Indigenous peoples, and youth can take on decision-making roles.
- Safe spaces and zero tolerance for violence, so no one faces discrimination in our organization or in the territories where we work.
- Community-centered approaches, making sure projects are designed with and not just for Indigenous peoples, with full respect for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (CLPI).
- Partnership criteria, aligning only with allies that share commitments to justice, equity, and intercultural respect.
- Unified protocols and a Gender & Intercultural Committee to ensure accountability, transparency, and collective responsibility.
This is more than words, it’s a framework to make conservation just, inclusive, and resilient.
What makes this possible?
None of this would have been achievable without the partnership of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), who believed in our vision and invested in building the foundations for a truly inclusive conservation model through supporting not only conservation projects, but also the participatory gender and inclusion diagnosis that laid the groundwork for this policy. Thanks to CEPF, we are not only conserving forests, we are building an organization and movement that reflects the diversity of the people who defend them.
Where do we go from here?
Policies are only as strong as the actions that bring them to life. Now, our task is to:
- Train our staff, partners, and communities in applying the EDI framework.
- Equip young women and Indigenous leaders to step into roles as rangers, coordinators, and decision-makers.
- Ensure that every conservation project we lead, whether it’s creating a protected area, restoring forests, or launching sustainable livelihoods, embeds equity at every step.
- Develop inclusive communication guidelines, strengthen our participatory monitoring indicators, and train our staff, partners, and communities
This is how conservation becomes unbreakable: when it belongs to everyone.
Be part of this transformation
If you believe conservation must be inclusive to endure, then join us. Help us train the next generation of diverse conservation leaders, strengthen safe spaces for Indigenous women defenders, and prove that equity is not just fair, it’s effective.
Together, we can show the world that conservation with equity, rooted in the Andean-Amazon is stronger, more just, and unstoppable.
Me gusta:
Me gusta Cargando...
ES_PE 
EN