Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca (CAMPO)

The Center to Support the Popular Movement in Oaxaca (CAMPO) helps indigenous communities in the mountains and valleys of Oaxaca reflect on the problems they face and create community plans to turn around the economic and social crisis they are living through. CAMPO, established in 1988, is a team of agronomists, lawyers, economists and organizers providing high-quality technical support and training to home-grown initiatives like a women’s jam-making project in the Mazateca region. They help indigenous coffee farmers who have seen their family incomes plummet due to the crash in world coffee prices diversify their agriculture and defend ownership of family and community lands. CAMPO helps organize indigenous communities and strengthen their leadership, planning and management skills.

Grassroots supports micro-regional sustainable development in the Chinantla Alta (the mountainous, cloud forest region in the Oaxacan highlands). Working closely with 12 communities and local autonomous indigenous authority councils CAMPO supports community members in spawning income generating projects and advocating for such crucial infrastructure improvements as rural roads to get their harvests to market.

CAMPO’s goal is to help these neglected communities exercise their full citizenship rights, increase food production and improve local health. Specific economic development projects include fish farming, poultry production, worm composting reforestation, fruit tree seedling nurseries, housing improvements, potable water delivery systems, alternative energy sources and sanitary latrine construction.