“Cacao has emerged as an unlikely hero: a pathway towards sustainable income for impoverished Asháninka families and regeneration of the Amazon” On first appearance, the Ene River valley looks a picture of abundance. Located 500 kilometres inland from Lima, Peru’s capital city, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, the Ene is one of the main headwaters of the Amazon River. These are the ancestral lands of the Asháninka, Peru’s largest indigenous group, whose traditional way of life is tied to the forest and the river. More than 10,000 Asháninka live in the Ene valley, some in villages so isolated they can only be reached after several hours in a canoe.
For all its beauty and bounteousness, the valley, like the Asháninka themselves, is under constant threat. Encroaching agriculturalists, illegal…
