At a Glance

Location: Colombia

Impact Areas: Employment Generation, Cultural and Environmental Conservation

People Supported:
Indigenous Communities

Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2024

https://painuamazon.wordpress.com/

Overview

Associación Intercomunitaria Painü (“Painü) was founded over ten years ago in Leticia, Amazonas to improve the livelihoods the Indigenous communities of the Yahuarcaca Lakes while protecting their territory and recovering and preserving ancestral knowledge. 

Almost 3,000 people of the Tikuna, Kokama, and Yagua communities reside on the banks of the 21 Amazonian lakes that make up the Yahuarcaca Lakes System and depend on the preservation of this unique ecosystem that is increasingly threatened by pollution and growing urbanization. Their primary means of income is farming yuca, banana, and pineapple, and harvesting Amazon fruits such as açai, star fruit, goldenberry, and copoazu, in addition to artisanal fishing and selling handicrafts. 

In 2014, the Indigenous-led association launched a line of eco-tourism services to provide the Yahuarcaca Lakes communities with a sustainable livelihood alternative that protects this Amazon ecosystem of great biodiversity and natural resources. Painü works with close to 40 individuals to offer a range of services to national and international tourists, including outdoor, adventure, well-being, and cultural experiences, day trips and week-long excursions in the Colombian Amazon. 

With Indigenous wisdom and culture at great risk of being lost due to globalization, Painü places great emphasis on preserving the knowledge of the communities it supports. The association actively engages with elderly members of local communities to recover and document ways of working and living in harmony with the natural environment and safeguarding their ancestral territory – known as ‘‘Wadiü”. Through its responsible, community-based tourism activity, Painü raises awareness of these practices among visitors, while also promoting cultural practices such as oral storytelling, music and dance, handicrafts, and traditional medicines.

Painü is also committed to advancing gender equity in the Indigenous communities where it operates. One of the ways it does this is by hiring local women to run workshops on traditional meals and prepare food using native culinary techniques. Today, half of the association’s workforce is women. 

Painü’s work is supported by the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC) in partnership with NESsT.

NESsT Investment

Painü is a pioneering example of sustainable, community-based tourism in the Amazon and has great potential to reach more visitors to the region. Alongside NESsT and OPIAC over the next three years it will expand its services to welcome an average of 81 visitors a month, allowing it to increase the number of Indigenous people it employs and suppliers. 

NESsT’s investment will go toward finalizing the construction of a new cabin to welcome an additional 12 guests and to be used as a space for workshops on traditional medicines and crafts. 

Technical support from NESsT’s portfolio managers will focus on strengthening the association's digital marketing strategy, targeting niche, high-growth markets, and enhancing social and environmental impact tracking and reporting methods. This will make Painü more attractive to impact-driven investors and financial resources.