“When I give speeches to big crowds, to people at large conferences, like WEF or the last COP meeting in Lima, I always say: I am not coming here alone, behind me are all the indigenous communities I serve, I am here for them”. These are the powerful words of a man who spent thirty years walking every peak of the Andes, meeting and connecting with the most remote communities in search of understanding their needs and building trust to serve them in what became his life mission. This was the birth of ECOAN a non-profit NGO dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and threatened Andean ecosystems. Ecoan works as a team with local communities to protect the habitat of these species, improve the use and exploitation of natural resources, and restore degraded areas. Their work began 21 years ago in Cusco, they currently direct conservation and development projects in other regions of Peru, and they are the coordinators of a major initiative to protect high Andean forests in 5 countries of South America.
Its founder Constantino Aucca Chutas, amicably known as Don Tino by the locals, started his journey in conservation when he was young and inexperienced but determined to do something for his people. “My name AUCCA is of Inca descent, in fact is one of the 4 main families of the founding Inca Empire,” he said. “My name means warrior, and for many years I wanted to change it to a more Spaniard name, to avoid racism, and to be able to court a girl I liked. But then I learned more about my legacy from my grandfather, Papa Pancho, who asked me to keep my name and not only wear it with pride but carry it so high and do something impactful with it, to become a new beacon of inspiration for all the indigenous tribes, descendants of the greatest civilizations, and give them a renewed sense of pride, belonging and power.
“That’s a lot of responsibility to put on young boy, Don Tino said, but that conversation was it for me, I never looked back, and I was determined to do something so big it could not be ignored”, he continued.
When Don Tino started this work he had no name for it, it was not labeled conservation, and it didn’t have a roadmap on how to execute it. The development of his mission to support and help remote communities ensuring their knowledge and connection to nature was protected and nurtured developed over years of trial and error and walking thousands of miles up and down the mountains, talking to the people, and just being part of their daily struggles.
“I spent many years away from my family and my kids” he recalls” “seeing them for very short periods of time, and it was hard to explain the magnitude of what I was trying to achieve when it was not even so clear to me. During Covid my kids confronted me, they told me I left to go plant a tiny garden, that hundreds of trees were nothing, that what I did, and the price they had to pay while I was away from them, was for nothing, I had to do more to make it worth it”.
I felt chills down my spine as he shared this personal moment, being confronted by your kids, the generation you are supposedly building a legacy for, being told your efforts were barely a drop in the ocean it’s one tough awakening, but those words for sure awoke the AUCCA “warrior” that lived within him, and he scaled his game.
Accion Andina, was born in 2018 and it’s the culmination of his personal journey that started as a dream, then became a project, a program, and now a movement, covering 5 countries: Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. The movement has the ambitious goal of restoring the highland forests from Venezuela to Patagonia, The Andes, with their native tree: Polylepis. The Polylepis has 46 different species, growing at the highest mountain altitudes, sometimes up to 5000 mt above sea level. It’s a local tree that the indigenous communities have been dependent on and saw disappearing at the hands of deforestation.
The effectiveness with which Don Tino has built agreements with these communities has enabled the growth of this movement and the involvement of many.
Today as we talk about the journey, Accion Andina proudly celebrates being short-listed for the Earthshot Prize 2023
What will he do with the money if he wins, and what if he doesn’t?
Well his work while depends on money donated to support the program has already reached a magnitude of scale that will for sure continue to grow regardless of winning this prize, and if you are interested you can support and donate here
