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STORY: IFAD / PERU INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
TRT: 08:22
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT IFAD ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY / SEPTEMBER 2025, SHAMPUYACU, PERU
SEPTEMBER 2025, SHAMPUYACU, PERU
1. Wide shot, Ruth greets Peruvian food influencer Waldir Maqque at her home
2. Med shot, Maqque asks Ruth about her vanilla cultivation
3. Med shot, Ruth mixes a bowl of chocolate in her production facility
4. Med shot, Maqque learns about cocoa on Ruth’s plot
5. Med shot, Maqque juggles cocoa pods
6. Aerial shot, Ruth’s home
7. Aerial shot, over the border of the Bosque de las Nuwas – protected by the Awajun – and neighbouring farmland
8. Aerial shot, over a smallholder farmers’ plot and home in the San Martin district
9. Med shot, farmer opening a cocoa pod with a mechanical press
10. Various shots, aerial views of Awajun women farmers and improved irrigation technology
11. Various shots, Awajun woman inspecting irrigation technology
12. Wide shot, Ruth and Awajun women members of the Jambe Bakau Conasha Association sort cocoa beans on a solar dryer
13. Wide shot, Ruth watches over the collection of cocoa from a local farmer
14. Close up, Ruth’s husband clips a cocoa pod from a tree on their plot
15. Med shot, Ruth, her husband on their cocoa plot with Maqque
16. Med shot, two members of Ruth’s family help with meal preparation
10 NOVEMBER 2025, ROME, ITALY
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Alvaro Lario, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“Investments in climate adaptation are not just about protecting the livelihoods of the world’s poorest – they are also a strategic and an economic opportunity. By preserving the capacity of nations to produce food, create jobs and sustain growth, these investments will strengthen economic and social stability as well.”
SEPTEMBER 2025, SHAMPUYACU, PERU
18. Various shots, exteriors, Jembe Bakau Conasha Association, Chocolate Production Factory
19. Med shot, Ruth shows Maqque an example of new machinery funded by the AVANZAR Rural Project and IFAD
20. Med shot, Maqque examines cocoa in-process
21. Various shots, Ruth and Maqque package chocolates
22. An assortment of packaged “Shiijam” chocolates from the cooperative
23. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“We don’t only use the cocoa shell in a dish as an ingredient, but we can also make fertilizer and food for the same plant that gives us the product. We let them decompose and we get a fertilizer called Bocache.”
24. Wide shot, Maqque examining the bocache cocoa shells on Ruth’s farm
25. Various shots, food prepared using bocache
26. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Waldir Maqque, Peruvian Food Influencer:
“The recipe surprised me quite a bit. The recipe for being able to cook a sauté from the shell of a cocoa like this one. But when you peel it, when you treat it and it becomes something soft. And then you can combine with a lot of foods, I think, and be able to discover a new flavour, new textures … learning to cook it that way - it's wow, just wow.”
27. Various shots, Ruth and Maqque cooking cecina saltada con cascara
28. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“Every plant that we consume, like cassava, plantain, has been planted under agroforestry practices, always taking great care. If I am going to cut down a tree for something that is going to serve me, then before cutting it, I must have planted another one so that there is still more of this use, right?”
29. Wide shot, Ruth and Maqque next to banana tree
29. Aerial shot, planted trees
30. Close up, dulce de cacao con frijol and vanilla pollination
31. Med shot, Maqque pollinates a vanilla plant
32. Close up, Ruth brushes some vanilla into the dessert
33. Med shot, Maqque mashes beans
34. Ruth gives Maqque a taste of the cocoa mucilage honey
35. Wide shot, Ruth and Maqque cooking in an open fire
36. Close up, food preparation
37. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“We’ve always seen it here in the mountains. But never realised it could be so valuable as it is today. Pollination is done by hand, so it is hard work for the producer, but it’s rewarding.”
38. Various shots, Ruth’s husband pollinating by hand
39. Various shots, Maqque, Ruth, and her family eat the meal
40. Various shots, aerial views of Ruth’s home and surrounding area
Food influencer Waldir Maqque visited the Peruvian Amazon to see first-hand how IFAD is investing in Indigenous communities to adapt to changing weather patterns and strengthen their economic opportunities.
As countries negotiate the future of climate action around the clock in Belém (Brazil), Canada has announced a CAD263 million (US$187 million) concessional loan to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) that will “strengthen smallholder farmers' resilience and adaptive capacity in developing countries, while increasing productivity, expanding market access, and supporting sustainable livelihoods for the most vulnerable rural communities”.
IFAD invests in rural and indigenous communities around the world to support them to adapt to changing weather patterns.
Maqque went to the Peruvian Amazon as part of the Recipes for Change series to see how an IFAD funded project is changing the lives of one native community.
Ruth is a member of the Awajún community. Today she is showing Maqque around her cacao farm in the San Martin region of Peru.
Peru is among in the top ten cacao producers in the world, but over the last decade changing weather patterns including an increase in temperature and erratic rainfall has caused tough growing conditions for the countries small-scale farmers.
However, in the Peruvian Amazon, Indigenous communities like Ruth’s have been encouraged to adapt their farming methods to preserve and even increase their cacao production.
Small farms like Ruth’s, of up to 5 hectares, contribute around half of the world’s food on only one-sixth of the farmland, despite their exposure to the impacts of climate change.
Ruth’s cooperative, the Jembe Bakau Conasha Association, has benefitted from training and new cultivation techniques from the AVANZAR Rural project, funded by IFAD and the Government of Peru, to improve the productivity and climate resilience of their crops.
The global market for climate adaptation products and services is set to reach $2 trillion a year by 2026. IFAD have been working hard to leverage that climate finance. Our research shows that every dollar in smart adaptation which IFAD invests delivers up to ten dollars in benefits.
IFAD President Alvaro Lario says we must also stop perceiving these investments as a sunk cost and start viewing them as an economic opportunity.
SOUNDBITE (English) Alvaro Lario, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
“Investments in climate adaptation are not just about protecting the livelihoods of the world’s poorest – they are also a strategic and an economic opportunity. By preserving the capacity of nations to produce food, create jobs and sustain growth, these investments will strengthen economic and social stability as well.”
Ruth showed Maqque around their community’s chocolate production facility, where they make specialist chocolate bars to sell both nationwide and abroad. The AVANZAR rural project has provided extra equipment to improve productivity and their marketing skills.
Ruth’s community have also learnt how to make the most of every part of the Cacao plant.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“We don’t only use the cocoa shell in a dish as an ingredient, but we can also make fertilizer and food for the same plant that gives us the product. We let them decompose and we get a fertilizer called Bocache.”
Today as part of IFAD’s Recipe for Change series, Ruth is showing Maqque how to make Cecina Saltada con Cascara de cacao, a stir fry of Amazonian cured and dried pork with the shells of the cacao plant.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Waldir Maqque, Peruvian Food Influencer:
“The recipe surprised me quite a bit. The recipe for being able to cook a sauté from the shell of a cocoa like this one. But when you peel it, when you treat it and it becomes something soft. And then you can combine with a lot of foods, I think, and be able to discover a new flavour, new textures … learning to cook it that way - it's wow, just wow.”
The community has also learnt the importance of crop regeneration.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“Every plant that we consume, like cassava, plantain, has been planted under agroforestry practices, always taking great care. If I am going to cut down a tree for something that is going to serve me, then before cutting it, I must have planted another one so that there is still more of this use, right?”
For dessert Ruth showed Maqque how to make a sweet cacao pudding using vanilla cultivated on her farm. A technique that Ruth and her husband learned through the AVANZAR rural project.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ruth, Vice President, Jambe Bakau Conasha Association:
“We’ve always seen it here in the mountains. But never realised it could be so valuable as it is today. Pollination is done by hand, so it is hard work for the producer, but it’s rewarding.”
The dessert, Dulce de Cacao con Frejol, uses locally produced ‘huasca’ beans that are pureed. The cacao mucilage is cooked down into a thick texture, similar to honey, then finished with vanilla and some grated chocolate to taste.
The AVANZAR rural project has supported over 20,000 smallholder farmers, 12,000 of them women and more than 1,000 Indigenous Peoples.
For communities like Ruth’s, these investments have provided them with a recipe for success. Growing sustainable crops improves their incomes as well as preserving and adapting their livelihoods to the changing weather patterns.
IFAD investments promote a just and equitable transition for rural communities, ensuring women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples are central to resilience-building and benefit-sharing
Investment in climate adaptation is also an investment in environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation, which in turn supports climate resilience. To realize these co-benefits, 30 percent of IFAD’s climate finance targets will focus on nature-based solutions.
