Duncan Clark, Climate Change Advisor to Cool Earth

Visiting the Ashaninka is quite an undertaking. Even once you've reached Lima, Peru's capital, there's a ten-hour bus ride over the Andes mountains and then a trip over the thick jungle of the Amazon basin in a three-seater plane.

Duncan Clark in AshaninkaAfter such a long and hectic journey, it took a while to adjust to the pace of life here. The Ashaninka have lived in this area for millennia and have developed a way of life that that not only works harmoniously with nature, but also seems pleasantly relaxed.

Though the day starts early, with people heading into the forest to hunt, gather and fish, there's no shortage of time to unwind. There's a lot of sitting, laughing and socialising here, as well as large volumes of a weak pink beer made from the chewed fibre of the ubiquitous maniac root. The custom is to share a gourd of the stuff at each home that you walk by - which can make for slow progress at times.

The forest is our grocer, our pharmacy, our iron-monger

Things aren't always so relaxed, however. The Ashaninka have spent much of the past two decades fighting off the incursions of the Shining Path - the Maoist terrorist group that nearly brought Peru to its knees.

That threat has receded but there are other issues to worry about instead. At the regional meeting we heard local men and women speaking passionately about the risks posed by loggers and miners in the region. "The forest is our grocer, our pharmacy, our iron-monger", explained one woman. She described how the extraction of minerals and timber operations polluted the river, scared away the game, and left people without food.

The Cool Earth project will mean that the Ashaninka can keep the loggers out, and will also raise awareness of their other concerns, such as proposed laws that would force them to divide up their communal lands into private plots, thereby changing their relationship with the forest - and with each other. Such a change threatens to bring about an inverse tragedy of the commons, as it were.

Such problems aside, it's humbling and illuminating to spend time with the Ashaninka. Democratic, communal, environmentally friendly and even low stress - the West could learn a lot from these people.

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