María Elena Paredes Márquez Award — Upper Amazon Conservancy (EN)

María Elena Paredes Wins an Important Award for Indigenous Women Leaders

We are very proud to share the news about Ashéninka leader and member of our team, María Elena Paredes, who won a very competitive scholarship to strengthen her work involving indigenous women in the fight to protect the Amazon, and in particular the highly threatened Yurúa region where she lives.

*María in her community of Sawawo Hito 40 in front of the Amonia River, a tributary of the Yurúa River*

Conservation International - Peru’s “Program for the Promotion of Women Leaders of the Amazon” helps raise the voices of indigenous women leaders working to defend their territories and supports their commitment to promote local communities as key actors in the fight against the climate change and protectors of the Amazon.

María Elena Paredes Márquez, a UAC team member and Ashéninka leader of the Sawawo Hito 40 Native Community, from the department of Ucayali in Peru, received this award with a proposal for promoting strategies for the defense of her territory against loggers and the abuses they carry out. In a very competitive process, organized by Conservation International Peru and funded by the Government of France, her project was recognized and accepted, and she was selected to receive the scholarship for the training and support required to implement her proposal. See Conservation International's announcement on their Facebook page.

Maria leading a group of Indigenous women leaders during the Binational Congress, coordinated by UAC in April 2022

Learning to fly a drone with SERNANP specialist

Maria with the group of indigenous women leaders in the Binacional Congress held in April

With UAC staff, Cesia Babilonia, and members of her Sawawo community

Maria in Sawawo

“I am very happy and grateful to receive this news. It will help strengthen the participation of our women here in the border region that has been strongly threatened by an illegal highway.”

— María Elena Paredes

The program strengthens the capacities of the participating leaders and provides them with tools to empower them in this globalized and interconnected world. This year the initiative will help women leaders from the seven countries of the Amazon basin—Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and Peru—implement their projects.

Maria works with UAC as a specialist in community conservation, helping in the implementation of our activities throughout the Yurua watershed.

We congratulate María Elena for achieving this important support and recognition, and look forward to helping her promote the sustainable development of her community and train new women leaders to help defend her territory from external threats and climate change.