EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE: ECUADOR - BRAZIL

On April 30, 2020, a virtual exchange of the monitoring experiences of the Amazonia 2.0 project took place between the implementing partners of Ecuador and Brazil. The objective of the meeting was to share information and lessons learned about the activities and implementation of the project, taking into account the closeness between the objectives of both countries.

The meeting was attended from Ecuador by the project's technical coordinator Javier Vargas (Fundación EcoCiencia), Gilberto Nenquimo (President of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador), Wareca (technical monitor) and Aurelia (technical monitor). From Brazil, the project's technical coordinator Carla Navarro (IUCN Brazil), Ana Cláudia Salomão (local technician), Alda Ferreira (local technician) and Andreia Gomes (Administrative/Financial Assistant).

The coordinator of the project in Brazil, Carla Navarro, hosted the meeting, starting the conversation by welcoming everyone and thanking them for this important opportunity and the effort of having the Waorani technical monitors present, key local actors for the project.

As an introduction to the Ecuadorian context, Gilberto, a former A2.0 technical monitor, gave a briefing on the history of the Waorani, their customs and contact with the settlers. Gilberto is currently President of the Waorani Nationality, which is considered a great victory for the project; considering a former monitor, trained and qualified within A2.0, is now a high-level representative of his people.

Javier Vargas then gave a detailed presentation of the project's implementation, emphasizing the monitoring strategy in the Waorani territory, which uses a technological platform fed by the data collected by the monitors in the field through an application on their mobile phones. The details of the operation of this application were also explained. The technical monitors, Wareca and Aurelia, then spoke about their experience with the application, highlighting the ease of changing paper for mobile phones, which has been a great help in their work.

In the second part of the meeting, the Brazilian team presented the progress of the Amazonia 2.0 project in their country. The methodology being developed and to be used for monitoring in Brazil was presented through its application and platform; and was praised by the A2.0 coordinator in Ecuador. 

As part of the closing, the differences between the applications and platforms used by the two countries to carry out the monitoring were discussed. In addition, each of the monitors present at the meeting spoke about their personal experience in the project.

The virtual exchange was extremely enriching and allowed the creation of new contacts and communication channels. The Brazilian participants expressed that this presentation motivated them and generated several ideas to implement monitoring in the field, thanks to the enthusiasm and consistency shown by the Ecuadorian team.