Impact Spotlight

Installing 24 kW of solar for 4 community centers and 9 off-grid homes

Powering satellite internet, printers, water pumps, refrigeration, and educational spaces serving 200+ people

Solar-powered cable car system to replace a collapsed bridge

About

Piatua Resiste, an Indigenous-led collective, is rooted in cultural revitalization, ancestral defense, and community knowledge-sharing as tools for environmental justice. The Kichwa communities of the Piatua River basin—San Juan, Sacha Warmi, Chontayaku, and 20 de Abril—lie in a remote, forested region of the Ecuadorian Amazon near the headwaters of sacred rivers. After these communities successfully stopped a major hydroelectric project in 2018, they have continued to defend their territory from illegal mining, extractive threats, and government inaction. Most households lack electricity, running water, or internet access, and many families are forced to leave for urban centers.

“Our communities defend the rivers and forests not just for ourselves, but for all of humanity. This project will give us the tools to access and protect our more remote territories, and to live in our ancestral communities with access to technologies that enable us to communicate, learn, and thrive.”

— Piatua Resiste Team

HF Partnership

With support from the Honnold Foundation, Piatua Resiste will install 24 kW of solar energy across four community hubs and nine homes in the remote Amazonian communities of 20 de Abril, San Juan, Chontayaku, and Sacha Warmi. The systems will power satellite internet, computers, lights, water pumps, and cold storage, supporting critical infrastructure for territorial monitoring, ecotourism, agroforestry, and culturally rooted education. Each community will appoint system caretakers, receive in-depth technical training, and participate in project development and evaluation workshops. The project enables community members—especially elders and youth—to remain in territory, build climate resilience, and exercise energy sovereignty in defense of the Piatua River and surrounding rainforest.