“Our ancestors practiced reforestation unknowingly. It is a legacy we now embrace as the new generation, with the intention to highlight the contributions of women not only today but for the generations to come.”
Anayansi Santo Romero always flashes a big smile when she welcomes us on our every visit to her house and community project in El Guabo de Yorkin in Panama. This little village on the Panamanian side of the Yorkin River – tributary of the Sixaola River Basin – is part of a land the Bribri People claim but have yet to obtain an official declaration as their own by the government.
The women of Se Yämípä in El Guabo are creating a profound and positive impact. The women operate a tree nursery, organize reforestation events with the community, provide environmental education, promote local handicrafts, and send out strong powerful messages that resists the unhealthy monoculture practices that has been enforced in the region for more than 100 years.
“Se Yämípä began as a project of our women ancestors. We are sons and daughters of the Earth, of Iriria (in Bribri cosmovision Iriria was the Girl of the Earth, a very important figure). We bring to our nursery trees of native species to grow, produce, and have materials for our houses. But we also plant on the riverside and forest to give back to the forest what he gives to us,” explains Anayansi.
“When the trees are ready, we plant them in our family land. We will follow-up with control and maintenance, so the tree survives. We also reforest riverbanks and mountain areas. We work to be recognized and offer our products to the Panama institutions, so we can grow our enterprise,” adds Anayansi.
Inside this beautiful forest patch, the Caribbean heat is toned down. With the support of her husband and sons, Anayansi also offers lodging for tourists who wish to navigate the Yorkin River and breathe in the mountains that Bribri People have roamed for centuries. They built the accommodations in the traditional way: with leaves of the palm known as suita to install the Bribri conical house, the U-suré.
In the nursery, the women of Se Yämípä germinate and grow more than 20 species of trees such as manú, cachá, costilla de danta (meanings tapir rib), laurel, and cedar (cedro). Each planted tree and reforestation day are opportunities to teach the youth and the not so young the urgency of growing more trees and of fighting against deforestation, which is the main environmental problem in the Sixaola Basin. This is according to the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis developed by the project Conectando Comunidades y Ecosistemas.
“The word ‘crazy’ fits. When we started, I planted the seeds and thought of our ancestors, they said a tree lasted a lot of years. Cachá (a native species) for the houses. I still fight for my life, I can’t stay still and do nothing”, tells Filomena Yazmin, 79 years-old, daughter of a Bribri woman and a Jamaican man, and one of the elderly associates.
“At the beginning, a lot of men were upset and angry because women came to work at Anayansi. In this world of forests, there is a lot of sexism just because we organize. Before, my grandmother did it but quietly. We said to ourselves let's continue that work, but not silently. People say we seem crazy. But I have tried to motivate them. With a lot of effort, things are achieved. Everything we have achieved, shovels, carts, it all helps,” recollects Anayansi.
Ecological restoration, community sensibilization, recovery, and protection of the Bribri ancestral knowledge and tourism, amongst others, were the goal. As Anayansi summarizes, the organization grew from ‘our family’ to ‘union of families’. As the Yorkín River whispers the secrets of the forest, the women of Se Yämípä lead the way of an ecological movement in El Guabo, a mirror that can reflect the urgent transformation needed in the Sixaola River Binational Basin.
Se Yämípä is one of the local organizations the project Towards the Transboundary Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) of the Sixaola River Basin caters to. They have 17 women associates. The Project gives supplies for the tree nursery they manage and promotes their reforestation actions with the trees they germinate, grow, produce, and plant.
Towards the Transboundary Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) of the Sixaola River Basin shared by Costa Rica and Panama is a GEF project, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET) of Costa Rica.
Divulgated in communication actions as Proyecto Conectando Comunidades y Ecosistemas (traduced from Spanish as Connecting Communities and Ecosystems), it works with communities and institutions of Costa Rica and Panama to: Strengthen coordinated transboundary action; Set the conditions to achieve a real water management; Restore river ecosystems; Reduce risks of disasters by flooding; and Overall collaborate in the reduction of the excessive agrochemicals use in banana and plantain crops.
For more information, please contact Manuel Sancho Gutiérrez at manuel.sancho@tropicalstudies.org. You may also visit the project website and the project Facebook page.
Read also: Guardians of the Green
Watch also: The Women of Se Yämípä
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