Team & Institution
AWAKEN Sanctuary is led by its founder and CEO, Olga Sytnyk, a Ukrainian who has lived in Peru for the past six years. Her career has run along the two lines that meet in this project — tourism and the environment. In Ukraine she founded Unique Ukraine (Унікальна Україна), which grew into one of the country's largest domestic tour operators, was named by Forbes Ukraine among the country's most successful women entrepreneurs, and earned national recognition including the Ukrainian Travel Awards. After roughly a decade building that company, she was invited into public office, serving as Deputy Chair of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council and then as an advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine on forestry and ecological reform. In Peru these two threads — premium tourism and the protection of forests — finally come together in one place.
Core team
A group, not a single company
AWAKEN operates as a regional group running several initiatives in Loreto — in conservation and ecological monitoring as well as hospitality — with CeibaQ (an ecosystem-data product) as a flagship project. The group has its own scientific institution, TERI (Tropical Ecosystems Research Institute), a research NGO and independent scientific validator. The Sanctuary benefits from this institutional depth.
Strategic partnerships
Government & institutions
- Ministry of the Environment of Peru (MINAM)
- Regional Government of Loreto (GOREL)
- National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of Peru (SENAMHI)
- National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP)
- National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR)
- Forest and Wildlife Resources Supervision Agency (OSINFOR)
- Indigenous Chamber of Commerce of Peru (CCPIP)
Science & research
- UNAP — National University of the Peruvian Amazon (Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana)
- IIAP — Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana)
Institutional and field engagement across Loreto — universities (UNAP), government and science partners, work on AI-based forest monitoring and digital MRV, conferences, and field programs.
Governance
The 45 investors are active shareholders under a single Shareholders Agreement across the two companies, with an Investor Assembly and defined Reserved Matters. This raise, which exceeds the $500k annual fundraising cap, is subject to a two-thirds Assembly approval (a Reserved Matter).
Confidential.