Indigenous youth growing Amazonian bioeconomies

Growing opportunities for Amazonian youth

The municipalities of Palos Blancos, Rurrenabaque and San Borja form part of an important agroforestry and forest-based production corridor in northern Bolivia. Coffee, cocoa and diversified agroforestry systems are well established, while products such as açaí, majo, copoazú and other Amazonian fruits contribute to local livelihoods and regional markets. These productive landscapes support both household incomes and the conservation of standing forests.

Indigenous young people already play an active role in these production systems, but their participation is often limited to unpaid or low-value agricultural work within family farms. Opportunities to engage in product processing, quality control, marketing or collective enterprise development remain scarce, particularly in remote communities where access to technical training, productive equipment and innovation spaces is limited. Young women often face additional barriers to participating in economic activities and leadership roles.

Digital skills also present a growing challenge. While mobile phones are widely used for communication, opportunities to develop practical digital skills for production management, market access and business coordination remain limited, and internet connectivity continues to be constrained in many communities.

Expanding opportunities for indigenous youth is essential not only for creating more resilient livelihoods, but also for strengthening the long-term sustainability of Amazonian bioeconomy value chains and ensuring that agroforestry knowledge and forest-based livelihoods continue across generations.

A new approach to strengthening Amazonian bioeconomies

Expanding opportunities for indigenous youth requires more than technical training alone. Young people also need access to practical experience, productive equipment, supportive networks and opportunities to turn new skills into economic activities.

To address these interconnected challenges, the project combines two complementary approaches:

• Youth Bioeconomy Schools will provide practical, hands-on training in sustainable agroforestry, value addition, quality control, digital tools, entrepreneurship, collective organisation and youth leadership.
• Youth Bioeconomy Laboratories will create shared spaces where participants can experiment with product transformation, access productive equipment and develop collective initiatives linked to coffee, cocoa and Amazonian fruit value chains.

The project will be implemented by Practical Action Bolivia in partnership with the T’simane Mosetén Regional Council (CRTM) and the municipal governments of Rurrenabaque, San Borja and Palos Blancos. These partnerships will help ensure that activities respond to local priorities while strengthening indigenous participation and local ownership.

Together, the Schools and Laboratories will create a practical learning-to-enterprise model that strengthens youth participation in Amazonian bioeconomy systems while generating evidence for replication in other forest landscapes

By the end of the project, it aims to:

• Support around 500 indigenous young people over three years through three Youth Bioeconomy Schools.
• Ensure that at least half of all participants are young women, promoting greater gender inclusion in economic activities and leadership.
• Establish three Youth Bioeconomy Laboratories where participants can test ideas, access productive equipment and develop practical skills.
• Support 80 to 120 young people to participate in experimentation processes within the Laboratories.
• Strengthen 8 to 10 youth-led collective initiatives linked to coffee, cocoa and Amazonian fruit value chains.
• Increase young people’s participation in value-added activities such as product processing, quality control and marketing.
• Strengthen the use of digital tools for production management, coordination and product promotion.
• Produce a documented model of the Youth Bioeconomy Schools and Laboratories approach to support replication in other Amazonian contexts.

By combining indigenous knowledge, sustainable agroforestry practices, entrepreneurship and digital innovation, the project will create new economic opportunities for young people while contributing to forest conservation, community resilience and long-term inclusive development in the Bolivian Amazon.