Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, in the Loreto department bordering Ecuador and Colombia, indigenous Achuar communities have long relied on the forest for medicine, food, and cultural traditions. For generations, plants such as sangre de grado, aguaje, copaiba, and ungurahui have been used for healing, nourishment, and everyday life.
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Today, those traditions are also becoming the foundation for a sustainable economic opportunity.

Cooperativa Agraria Achuar Shakaim is a fully Indigenous-led cooperative that produces natural oils from these forest plants and connects them to growing markets for natural cosmetics and wellness products. Founded and governed by Achuar leaders, the cooperative operates as the commercial arm of the Achuar people’s national federation, creating a business that aligns with community priorities and traditional ecological knowledge.

The cooperative works with 100 Achuar families across remote river communities in the Amazon basin. Women represent about 60% of participants, and youth play an active role in production and leadership. By organizing harvesting, processing, and sales, the cooperative allows families to generate income from resources they have stewarded for generations.

Importantly, these products are non-timber forest products, meaning they are harvested without cutting down trees. Families collect fruits and resins from the forest using methods that follow natural ecological cycles, allowing trees and palms to regenerate. In this way, the cooperative turns standing forest into a sustainable economic asset.

To support this work, the Reciprocity Fund recently provided a $20,000 loan to the cooperative. The financing allows Shakaim to purchase more oils from producers during peak harvest seasons, ensuring families receive prompt payment while enabling the cooperative to fulfill growing orders from natural product companies.

Enterprises like Achuar Shakaim demonstrate a powerful model for the Amazon: Indigenous-led businesses that generate dignified livelihoods while protecting the forest and strengthening community autonomy.

In Colombia’s far northeast, entire communities live beyond the reach of the national electricity grid. In places like La Guajira and Vichada, families rely on diesel generators, firewood, or kerosene to meet basic needs—if they have energy access at all. These regions are officially classified as Non-Interconnected Zones, where grid extension is deemed unviable and public electrification efforts have repeatedly failed.

Soluna Energía was created to work precisely in these conditions. Founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Iluméxico and Colombia-based Hybritec, Soluna delivers off-grid solar power through an energy-as-a-service model designed for remote, low-income communities. Rather than requiring families or schools to purchase costly equipment upfront, Soluna installs and maintains solar systems and provides reliable electricity through affordable monthly fees.

Today, Soluna provides clean energy to nearly 7,000 people across households, community centers—including schools and health posts—and small businesses. More than half of the people it serves belong to indigenous communities, particularly the Wayuu in La Guajira and the Maibén Masiware in Vichada.

For these communities, access to energy is about far more than electricity. Reliable power enables refrigeration for food and medicine, lighting for education and connectivity, and energy for small businesses and productive activities. Just as importantly, it supports Indigenous families’ ability to remain on their ancestral lands, strengthening livelihoods, cultural continuity, and community autonomy.

A loan from The Reciprocity Fund enabled Soluna to install 34 additional solar systems across La Guajira and Vichada. The financing supports the enterprise’s liquidity and asset productivity, allowing Soluna to expand without relying on short-term, high-cost capital. Rather than funding a pilot, the loan builds on a portfolio of existing systems that already generate predictable, recurring revenue.

By replacing diesel generators, kerosene lamps, and firewood, Soluna’s solar systems help reduce carbon emissions, improve indoor air quality, and ease pressure on fragile ecosystems. The company enforces a strict no-deforestation policy, adapting installations to the natural environment rather than altering it.

Soluna shows what’s possible when clean energy and patient capital come together—delivering solutions that power daily life, protect the environment, and help historically excluded communities thrive on their own terms.

What do these products — Amazonian fruits from Colombia, Andean quinoa from Peru, fresh vegetables from Nicaragua, and clean water in eastern Indonesia — have in common?

They are all produced or provided by community-rooted social enterprises supported by the Reciprocity Fund.

Over the past year, the Reciprocity Fund has grown quickly, allowing us to support more social enterprises than ever before. Many of these enterprises are modest in scale, deeply embedded in Indigenous and rural communities, and often overlooked by traditional finance. Together, they reflect the Reciprocity Fund’s core mission: backing community-led solutions that strengthen livelihoods, protect ecosystems, and honor cultural knowledge.

​Below are a few borrowers we’re excited to introduce.

​Puramazonia is a nonprofit enterprise working with over 100 Indigenous and Afro-Colombian families in Colombia’s southern Amazon. Most producers belong to the Inga, Koreguaje, or Kamentsá peoples and cultivate native fruits such as arazá, copoazú, and sacha inchi using agroforestry systems that regenerate degraded land and protect biodiversity. Through technical training, organic certification support, and value-added processing, Puramazonia helps communities earn higher prices while strengthening stewardship of the Amazon rainforest. A loan from the Reciprocity Fund supports harvest-season working capital, enabling timely payments to producers.

​The Union of Horticultural Cooperatives of the North (UCHON) is a second-level cooperative aggregating six smaller cooperatives and working with 677 farming families in Nicaragua’s horticultural corridor. Centered in Matagalpa and Jinotega, UCHON supports smallholders through fair prices, certified processing facilities, and technical assistance in regenerative agriculture. Approximately 26% of members identify as Chorotega, Nicaragua’s largest Indigenous group. With support from the Reciprocity Fund, UCHON expanded production and distribution through new delivery vehicles, increasing farmer incomes and reaching more communities with fresh, locally grown vegetables.

​SIMPLi is a vertically integrated social enterprise working directly with smallholder quinoa farmers in southern Peru. Nearly 80% of its 541 supplier families come from Indigenous Quechua and Aymara communities. By shortening the supply chain, guaranteeing offtake, and supporting certification, SIMPLi strengthens farmer incomes while preserving native quinoa varieties. Through its Regenerative Pathway Program, farmers transition to organic and regenerative practices that improve yields and protect ancestral Andean farming knowledge. A loan from the Reciprocity Fund supports expanded organic quinoa purchases and timely payments during harvest.

​Komodo Water is a women-led social enterprise bringing affordable, clean water and ice to remote fishing communities in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Using solar-powered desalination and ice production, the enterprise serves Indigenous Manggarai farmers and Bajo sea nomads across the Komodo Islands. Communities co-own and operate the facilities, ensuring water costs are reduced, fish spoilage declines, and profits remain local. With a loan from the Reciprocity Fund, Komodo Water expanded two new facilities, improving access to safe water for thousands while strengthening climate resilience tied to both land and sea.

With a loan from the Reciprocity Fund, Wari purchased 130 more metric tons of quinoa, guaranteeing that farming families could sell their entire harvest at fair prices. Supporting enterprises like Wari means protecting cultural traditions, strengthening food systems, and ensuring prosperity is shared across communities.

Wari Solid Foods shows how an ancestral practice like minka can be reimagined today — a living example of ancient wisdom fueling sustainable futures.

​We’re always looking to partner with regenerative businesses across Latin America and Southeast Asia.
​Let us know at [email protected]

With 14 borrowers across the country—from the highlands of the Andes to the heart of the Amazon rainforest—Peru is a key geography for the Reciprocity Fund. Our partners here are advancing indigenous-led solutions that build climate resilience, regenerate ecosystems, and strengthen local economies.

Although farmers in Guatemala primarily grow staple crops such as maize or beans, the country’s fertile soil and temperate climate have made it an ideal growing environment for blackberries as well.  Last year Guatemala was the second-largest exporter of blackberries to the U.S.  However, growing blackberries and making a living from blackberries are two very different propositions.

A successful berry business requires coolers for storage, efficient transportation, year-round supply and contacts with wholesale buyers.  Farmers with just an acre or two of land aren’t viable players in this competitive market. But when they band together the calculus changes.

​Flor de Mora manages a collection center in the community where they run quality control checks, pack the berries, and store berries in a cold room until ready for shipment.  With the pooled resources of the cooperative, Flor de Mora blackberries are reaching buyers in Guatemala City and as far away as the United States. 

Flor de Mora has grown its membership to 100 Maya Kaqchikel families who are paid weekly for their regular deliveries to the collection center. The enterprise also generates part-time jobs for youth who assist with collection and packing. While other Guatemalan towns are losing their young people to the city and emigration, San José Poaquil remains vibrant and hopeful.

Reciprocity Fund extended a $60,000 loan to enable the cooperative to buy packaging in bulk and to promptly pay the indigenous families that grow and harvest the berries.