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Photo credit: Shia Inguil - CORPI-SL
In the vast green expanse of the Peruvian Amazon, where rivers wind through dense forests and communities have lived in harmony with nature for centuries, a new generation of Indigenous women leaders is emerging. Their work is spearheading a movement to protect their territories, strengthen their communities, and preserve the knowledge of their ancestors by utilizing traditional systems like integral chacras, which play a vital role in Indigenous life.
At the center of this movement is the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), an Indigenous-led organization that represents hundreds of communities across the Amazon. For decades, AIDESEP has defended Indigenous territories and rights while strengthening community governance.
Through its Women, Youth, Children, and Elders program, the organization also supports the training and development of Indigenous women leaders. One of these leaders is Elaine Shajian Shawit, an Awajún woman from the Loreto region of Peru. In 2023, after years of advocacy work, Elaine became the first president of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples (CORPI SL), one of AIDESEP’s nine regional organizations.
Much of Elaine’s work focuses on restoring and strengthening integral chacras. The word chacra comes from the Quechua word chakra and refers to a small farm or family garden used for agriculture and subsistence. An integral chacra is a sustainable farming system that combines ancestral knowledge with agroecological practices. Families with integral chacras cultivate a diversity of crops, raise animals, and recycle natural resources in ways that protect the soil, water, and biodiversity while reducing the use of chemical inputs.
Beyond food production, the integral chacra is also a cultural and communal space. It is a place where communities cultivate crops while protecting biodiversity, sharing seeds and medicinal plants, and transmitting ancestral knowledge from one generation to the next. For many Indigenous women, the chacra is also a space of learning and leadership where they plant seeds, care for the land, and pass knowledge on to younger generations.
As AIDESEP President Jorge Pérez Rubio explains, the idea of the integral chacra is not something new, but rather a recognition of what Indigenous Peoples have always practiced: “The concept of integral chacras is simply about valuing what our ancestors have always done to maintain harmony between culture, knowledge, the land, our food systems, and the development of our peoples.”
In many communities, restoring these systems has become urgent. Many ancestral seeds have disappeared, some were due to environmental changes, while others were replaced by monoculture farming systems that reduced biodiversity. Without these seeds, communities risk losing important elements of their culture, diet, and traditional knowledge.
Through the Women Program, Elaine is working to recover and reintroduce the integral chacra form of cultivation. Her organization, CORPI-SL, implemented an integral chacra where families now work together to identify and replant traditional seeds while elders share their knowledge on how to grow and care for them.
Today, several communities from different Amazonian regions have also revitalized their chacras. These gardens now once again contain a wide variety of native plants, including foods, medicinal herbs, and traditional crops that support both nutrition and cultural identity. They also serve as spaces for intergenerational learning, where elders teach youth about agricultural practices passed down through generations.
As Teresita Antazu, head of AIDESEP’s Women, Youth, Children, and Elders program, emphasizes, the knowledge held by elders is essential: “It is very important to recognize that our wise elders in the communities have shared a great deal of knowledge with us. They have exchanged plants and seeds that do not exist in some places, which is especially important for women who may not have access to seeds in their own communities.”
The revival of integral chacras has also transformed community dynamics. Traditionally, the chacra was often seen as the responsibility of women alone. But through the Territories, Forests, and Integral Chacras Program, these spaces have become collective efforts that involve men and young people as well. What was once considered individual work has evolved into a shared activity that strengthens communities.
According to AIDESEP, when women participate actively in community life and decision-making, the defense of a territory becomes stronger. Women often bring perspectives centered on care, sustainability, and long-term well-being and values that are essential for protecting both communities and ecosystems.
Today, Elaine continues working through CORPI-SL and in coordination with AIDESEP to train and support the next generation of Indigenous women leaders. For her, leadership is guided by responsibility and love for the community.
“Women lead differently,” Elaine says. “We lead with love. Even when we face criticism or threats, we think about our children and the land we will leave them.”
According to AIDESEP, more than 120 Indigenous women now hold leadership positions across the Peruvian Amazon. Through training programs, community exchanges, and mentorship initiatives, this number continues to rise.
Deborah Sánchez, a human rights defender and director of RRI's rightsholder-led funding mechanism CLARIFI, which supports AIDESEP’s work, believes that the leadership of women like Elaine is essential for the protection of the Amazon: “When women defend their territory together, they are not just protecting land, but they are sustaining life itself.”
She also highlights the importance of including different voices in community decision-making: “Each group plays a role: elders bring wisdom, youth bring technology, and women bring care and memory. Together, they build the resilience our communities need.”
The goal is not to shift individual roles, but to restore a balance that has always existed in Indigenous life, grounded in collective responsibility. Integral chacras have proven to be a space where this balance can be nurtured and put into practice.
