Ecuadorian Natives Benefit from Traditional Handicrafts

Expanding benefits and increasing skills: Through USAID programs in FY 2009 and FY 2010, an additional 2,615 indigenous people have benefited from new economic activities in handicrafts, ecotourism, and agroforestry, and more than 3,200 indigenous people have been trained in natural resource management, conservation, wildlife monitoring, environmental education, handicrafts production, organizational consolidation, and conflict management. 265 Waorani women have opened personal bank accounts to manage their income from handicrafts sales in the three stores that they manage.