Eleven young Mayangnas are now collaborators of MLR Forestal

From signed agreements to fulfilled promises. For eleven young Mayangnas, this first of May was different. They celebrated International Workers’ Day as active collaborators of MLR Forestal.

“We generate employment for our neighboring communities, but also through the relationship agreement with the Mayangnan indigenous communities it was established that the company is going to give employment opportunities to the children of the territory and that is what we have done,” says Mabel Lazo Quino, responsible of social management of MLR.

The Relationship Agreement between MLR Forestal and the Pansuhwas, Mukuswas and Ispayulilna communities, of the Mayangna Arungka Matumbak territory on the North Caribbean Coast, presents as main axes the protection of the environment and natural resources, and the social development of these indigenous communities, in the framework of respect for indigenous peoples, their rules and governance authorities and their customs. The agreement is valid from 2021 to 2025.

For 2021, the annual operating plan contemplates hiring – through an open call – children of the territory, to work in MLR Forestal. Currently some of them work in Siuna and others in Bonanza.

“There are 11 young people who do field work in the areas of forestry and cocoa industries,” Lazo said.

MLR Forestal’s good relations with GTI Matumbak have been built since the company was established in the area in 2013; And as of 2017, a process of formalizing the relationship began, directing it to a novel relationship strategy that led to the signing of a first general agreement negotiated between 2019 and 2020.