Our Principles:

1: Participation
            Yanapuma is a cooperatively run and democratic organization, an internal ethic that serves as a model for how we interact with the communities and groups that we work with.

2: Sustainability-
            We are driven to seek equality between social and economic development in a globalizing world with a respect for the environment and cultural traditions as the only way to enact genuine improvement in well-being

3: Collaboration-       
            We promote collaboration and communication within our foundation and seek partnerships with relevant foundations and organizations, recognizing that we cannot be experts in everything, but can act as a coordinating force in project development on multiple levels.

4: Transparency- 
            Yanapuma works to maintain transparency in all its financial operations and
 to maintain clear channels of communication both with donors and the communities and projects in which we are working.

5: Professionalism-
We work to achieve professionalism in all areas of our work both internally on a day- to- day basis and long term with the communities we work with and our partners.

Our work is founded on the belief that the processes of globalization are inevitable. Without help indigenous cultures and communities most often end up losing control of or destroying their resource base. They lose their traditional cultural values and relationships to their environment. Thus they are drawn into a system in which they are ill-equipped to compete and are destined to remain at the bottom of the economic ladder, with under-developed infrastructure, and poor prospects for future generations.  
We believe that such communities have the right to maintain control of their resources and to live dignified and sustainable lives. With the right help they can develop suitable strategies and work towards a fulfilling future. But their responses need to be coordinated across all axes in order to achieve truly sustainable lives. Thus we believe it is important to support sustainable practices on multiple levels in order to present viable and holistic options.