Our project focuses on the communities of the Lower Napo River (LNR), a group of 25 villages comprising around 5,000 inhabitants around four hours upriver from Mazan.

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Each community consists of around 200 people who live a predominantly subsistence agricultural life. Although they have Indigenous heritage, many identify as mestizo ribereños.

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Most live in severe poverty, many don’t have access to running water or toilets, and the highest level of education for 83% of women we surveyed was at or below primary.

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These conditions are not unique to the Lower Napo River; the majority of ribereño communities in the Amazon basin live in comparable circumstances and, in the Peruvian highlands, the socioeconomic position of campesino mountain communities is reportedly similar.