Who We Are
We are Pangaia, a small solarpunk farming community in the Amazon region of Peru. We aim to use permacultural traditions and methods to recover soil health on a farm that has been used for grazing cows and is completely degraded.
Many neighboring farms have been investing in fish farms or cattle, thus completely reshaping the land, destroying soil fertility and increasing CO2 as well as methane emissions.
We want to reverse this trend and empower small farming communities like ours to be part of the fight for climate justice.
Ronja Heinemann, Organizer
I am Ronja, 35 years old and German. During my two years in Peru, Andres and me founded the project Pangaia. At the moment I live in Germany again to support the project financially. I am very passionate about intersectional feminism and therefore educate our small community about this topic. Furthermore, I try to give some structure to our project, which is not always easy being so far away.
Athalia Estrada, Educator & Spice Expert
I am Athalia from Mexico. I came to Pangaia in 2020 and stayed longer than I expected! Thanks to the project I have become very interested in decolonial feminism and healthy nutrition. With my background as a teacher I try to help the community break from hierarchical ways of teaching and focus more on free education methods.
Clara Alfaro, Fermentation Expert
I am Clara from Venezuela. I joined the project in 2021 thanks to Athalia. I left for Venezuela in 2022 but I still try to support the project from a distance. My expertise with Kombucha fermentation opened up a whole new flavor experience for the community and also made it possible for the project to have a small income source by selling our Kombuchas in the city.
Jaime Vargas, Permaculture Expert & Eco-Builder
I am Jaime from Perú. I was the first to join the project as a co-founder after Ronja and Andrés came to me with the idea. I have been farming since I was a teenager and have gathered a lot of knowledge about the local flora and fauna. Building with natural materials is also an activity I enjoy passionately.
José Vargas, Master Chef & Climate Activist
I am José, and like my father Jaime, also from Perú. I came to the Pangaia when my father joined and now I feel right at home. I want to learn as much as I can from everyone living in the community and also contribute with my perspective and experiences. I enjoy cooking new recipes and learning about climate justice since it is something that will be very important throughout my life.
Miky Rodríguez, Activist, Educator, Gardener
I am Miky, a young activist and communist by heart. I was drawn to the community after meeting Andrés and decided to move there as soon as possible so that I could develop my skills as a gardener and educator even more and have the freedom and resources to continue my activism for the LGBTQIA+ community, the non-human animals and the environment.
Andrés Heinemann, Farmer & Activist
I am Andrés. I was born in Ecuador to a German father and Ecuadorian mother. I am passionate about everything Solarpunk and natural farming. Although it took me a while to become an activist, I now can’t picture a life without it.
2017
The project was born out of a brainstorming session between Ronja and Andrés, and survived its early days through crowdsourced money.
Jaime, a small farmer and long-time friend of Andrés joined the team. The first theoretical and practical lessons on permaculture began on Andrés' family farm.
2019
Eric, passionate about finding a meaningful project in the Amazon region found us via Couchsurfing and decided to join us. We started creating an edible forest on a small area in front of the main house. We built two structures to house more people that wanted to help.
Athalia, an educator, escaped the pandemic in the city of Lima to visit us and quickly became an important member of our team.
Ronja purchased the farm, which allowed us greater freedom in the project's direction. The first elevated vegetable beds were built. Feminism, Veganism, Cooperation and Biodiversity restoration were chosen as the main pillars of our project.
2021
We expanded the edible forest around us and built 5 more vegatable beds.
We finally acquired electricity and an internet connection, allowing for easier communication with the outside world. We jouned a couple of local town meetings and invited folks to our activities.
In an effort to improve on our community's quality of life, we decided upon a consensus framework for making decisions, set up living agreements, and studied Feminism once a week.
It's 2022, things are going well:
We also improved our rooms to accommodate visitors via socialbnb ( check out here! ), and started planting banana herbs (yes, they are not trees but rather herbs!). Of course, through all these years, we have been constantly expanding our forests and will continue to do so.
Our project has been a tremendous source of joy for us. Right now, we are running our 2nd crowdfunding campaign, creating more spaces for activities such as music, sports, art, as well as helping local farmers to establish organic vegetable patches and edible forests.