MASCHA KAUKA

Preserving and shaping together

This is how it started:
„Have you ever been to a ‚blank spot on the map‘?“ asks Mascha Kauka and begins to tell the story: „On a vacation in Ecuador, my husband and I canoed into such an area: unexplored jungle in the Andes above the Pacific.
Here we had a fateful encounter with the indigenous Chachi, river nomads who had not yet seen any tourists.

Because the chief’s family trusted us, we soon learned of the great danger for the Chachi and their rainforest: the state had leased the entire region to timber companies, and these were demanding the resettlement of the indigenous population in order to be able to log undisturbed.
There was only one salvation, which the chief’s son knew: ‚the white spot‘, their traditional settlement area, had to be surveyed by the state in order to obtain a legally binding title of ownership. ‚You are the first white people we have trusted, so you must help us. Have our land surveyed‘, asked Chief Tapuyo.

As you can guess, we embarked on the adventure of organizing and paying for everything so that the Chachi would not be driven away and the rainforest would remain standing.
And we did it. The 14,000 Chachi own their land, 105,000 hectares, which is the size of almost half of Saarland.

But surveying was just the beginning of the long road of ‚learning by doing‘ for us, an endless series of start-ups without being called that at the time.
The state had made it a requirement that the Chachi settle down, live in villages and form districts in order to keep their land title,“ explains Mascha Kauka. It was therefore the task of the Munich partners to support the Chachi in their transition from hunting and fishing river nomads to settled farmers and craftsmen. This process took 20 years.
Her master plan was so convincing that even the Ecuadorian government asked Mascha Kauka for help in working with other indigenous groups. For more than forty years now, she has been traveling regularly to visit her fellow campaigners, the peoples of the rainforest.

**1980 – My life in a canoe for over four decades – 2025**

Briefly about Mascha Kauka

Passion

Helping people in need to succeed through their own work and protecting our nature.

Credo

The future quality of life on earth will largely depend on how healthy we can keep our natural environment. Everyone must contribute and everyone can contribute, each in their own way.

Vision

By „5 past 12″, there will still be enough sensible people to leave a world worth living in for the next generations by working together.

Strategy

Since it is mankind that destroys nature, we must work with people to preserve healthy ecosystems and restore threatened ones. In doing so, I am relying on the forest population, as the born guardians of the forest, and on the youth of the world. I want both to join hands in the common interest.

Curriculum Vitae: Mascha Kauka

(Name among the Shuar people „Yaanua“, star woman, among the Achuar „Nunkui“, fertility goddess, among the Kichwa „Nina Sicha“, firebird)

Born

14. February 1945

Bad Reichenhall, Germany

Parents

Dr. Erika Kauka and Rolf Kauka

Education

Grammar school and Abitur in Munich. Studied German, Romance languages and literature and history at the universities of Munich and Paris.
Trained at the School of Journalism in Munich.
Traineeship at publishing houses in England and Germany.

Editor at the children’s magazine „Fix und Foxi“

Foreign languages