After visiting the Ecuadorian Amazon to meet the Achuar people, we started co-developing the growing and learning project via weekly zoom calls between Ireland and the Amazon with our Irish and indigenous experts.  It has become a fascinating two-way learning experience as we exchange and blend indigenous knowledge with our growing methods.   

Aquaponics was originally used by the Aztecs as a highly efficient way to grow fresh food in vast quantities and so this ancient method has become part of innovative food solutions due to its accelerated yields, low water usage and pesticide free growing for today’s climate challenges.  

Listening to the Achuar, I began to think about the difference between our worlds, where we have easy access to food, clothes, education, medicine and transport and life in the Amazon, where the focus is to live in partnership with the environment rather than just seeing nature as a “producer” for our needs. 

The Achur who are—guardians of the rainforest are under pressure from deforestation and economic stress. Hunting is declining, protein sources are shrinking, soils are depleted, and communities are cut off from markets. The challenge is clear: how do we nourish people without harming the forest that sustains them? 

Amazon Aquaponics is my answer: a biodegradable, self-sustaining food system designed with and for the Achuar. It shows how youth innovation and Indigenous knowledge can deliver local solutions to global problems.