Nia Tero Annual Report 2023 ENGLISH Single pages - Flipbook - Page 64
INNOVATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Impact
Highlights
In 2023, Nia Tero funded projects aimed at integrating energy,
transportation and satellite telecommunication solutions within
collective territories. An inspiring example is the growing work of
our grantee Fundacion Kara Solar in the Achuar nation of Ecuador.
These initiatives are not only developed in consultation with our
Indigenous partners, but are also intended to be led and run by
Indigenous Peoples from within their communities.
Solar Transportation
For Nia Tero’s grantee, Fundacion Kara Solar,
it all started with early morning dreams in
the Achuar rainforest of a future where a fire
energy canoe would be used by the Achuar
to travel across their extensive territories in
peace. Humble beginnings saw electric boat
prototypes struggle to survive in the difficult
environment of the Ecuadorian Amazon back
in 2018. However, by the end of 2023, there
are now over 10 solar electric boats deployed
at the hands of the Achuar of Ecuador, the
Wampis of Peru, the Wayana and Baniwa
of Suriname and Brazil and the Malaitans of
Solomon Islands – all in direct collaboration
with Fundacion Kara Solar and Nia Tero.
In Ecuador alone, over 2,000 solar-powered
trips have been made by the Achuar so far,
rendering gasoline obsolete for all but the
longest trips. Recharge stations have been
constructed, Indigenous technicians have been
trained and bigger dreams are at work, with
Achuar teams building their own sustainable
Achuar infrastructure of boats, solar energy,
cold storage, and satellite internet – all
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Nia Tero Annual Report 2023
deployed and managed by the Achuar on their
own terms, showing their Indigenous cousins
what can be done at scale.
At the end of 2023, the leadership of Kara
Solar passed from founder Oliver Utne
to the Achuar engineer Nantu Canelos,
a Nia Tero Fellow, whose leadership will be
rooted more-than-ever in Achuar practices,
such as early morning guayusa – the collective
dream interpretation sessions in which key
community decisions are made.
Enterprise Investments
In 2023, we consulted with our regional
team members to review existing potential
investment opportunities while concurrently
refining our investment principles to ensure
alignment with Nia Tero’s mission and purpose.
We also started an imaging process of the
possible approaches to enterprise investment
that would be best aligned with Nia Tero’s
mission while always centering the
self-determined needs of our partners.
