Mr Benki PIYÃKO

Coordinator Institute Yorenka Tasorentsi

Benki Piyãko is a spiritual and environmental leader of the Ashaninka people of Brazil. Together with his community, he has championed the planting of over 2.3 million trees in Amazonia to show to the local population that one can live a healthier, more prosperous and sustainable life with the standing forest. In 2007, Benki created the Yorenka Ãtame Centre, where traditional and innovative solutions for sustainable forest management were taught to all local populations. He has also created the world's first eco-market for exchanging plastic for food, raising the local population out of the poverty line. In 2018, Benki inaugurated the Yorenka Tasorentsi Health and Educational Centre, where he has been treating illnesses with indigenous plant therapies based on traditional diets and the reconnection of human beings to the cycles of life and of one's natural environments. Benki is a recipient of the UN Equator Prize and the Culture for Peace Prize.