Stacy Walsh with Ka'apor necklace made from tucuma and inaja palm nuts. Photo by Campbell Plowden/ Center for Amazon Community Ecology
Hummingbird painting by Scotia Hunter. Photo by Campbell Plowden / Center for Amazon Community Ecology
I made my second visit to the campesino community of San Francisco on the Maranon River last month. CACE was introduced to these talented artisans by the NGO Minga Peru which has been working with this and four other villages in the area to promote better health, education, conservation and economic activities. See full album of photos at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1433251213370404 These artisans have woven a wide variety of animal ornaments with chambira palm fiber which they sell to tourists that periodically visit their community with a Lindblad tour. CACE has recently begun to work with these artisans to improve the quality and diversity of their crafts.
Forest mushroom at Jenaro Herrera. See all photos of recent visit at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1432086986820160
CACE began studying the ecology and sustainable harvest of copal resin at a research station near the town of Jenaro Herrera in 2006 operated by the Institute for Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP). Much of this work has focused on tracking the development of resin lumps formed by the larvae of bark boring weevils. During 2007 & 2008, we conducted a two year trial to manually harvest the resin. It was good to see that 8 years later, the old wounds had healed well. Resin sometimes exudes from cracks that open on the trunk. It was disturbing to learn from our field assistant Italo that six mature copal trees died in one of the two plantations of Protium hebetatum. Getting around the lower section of the reserve requires crossing lots of little streams. Unfortunately limited government support for the station sometimes leads to lapses in maintenance of wooden bridges that rot in the relentless hot rainy environment. I felt lucky that I didn't hurt myself when I stepped on and broke through a rotten plank.
Mientras que las artesanas de Jenaro Herrera se han centrado en tejer adornos de insectos para CECAMA, han encontrado la inspiración para un adorno y un poco de ingresos adicionales de una rana. Dora atrapó una rana de tamaño medio que era de color verde en la parte superior con un hermoso mosaico de camuflaje de manchas blancas, naranja y marrón en su parte inferior y los dedos del pie. Doilith estaba haciendo un molde de cartón de la rana como un modelo para hacer un adorno, mientras que Dora raspó el limo fuera de su vuelta a tres palitos que fue planeado vender a un hombre en Iquitos que iba a utilizar en una ceremonia de curación. Ella relató que este proceso aparentemente involucrado quemar la piel del paciente con un cigarrillo y luego poner una pequeña cantidad de la baba de la rana en la herida. Comprobación en línea, encontré que su amigo anfibio aparentemente se llama una rana verde de la hoja - presumiblemente Phyllomedusa bicolor. Es la fuente de una medicina tradicional chamánica potente llamado ibogaína. Me alegré al saber que Dora estaba preparando el lanzamiento de la rana de nuevo a su hábitat natural al día siguiente. Ver fotos de los artesanos Jenaro Herrera en:https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1429902723705253
While the Jenaro Herrera artisans have been focused on weaving insect ornaments for CACE, they've found inspiration for an ornament and a bit of extra income from a frog. Dora caught a medium-size frog that was green on top with a beautiful camouflage mosaic of white, orange and brown patches on its underside and toes. Doilith was making a cardboard mold of the frog as a model for making an ornament while Dora scraped the slime off of its back onto three sticks which was planned to sell to a man in Iquitos who was going to use them in a healing ceremony. She related that this process apparently involved burning the skin of the patient with a cigarette and then putting a small amount of the frog slime into the wound. Checking online, I found that their amphibian friend is apparently called a Green Leaf frog - presumably Phyllomedusa bicolor. It is the source of a potent traditional shamanic medicine called ibogaine. I was glad to learn that Dora was preparing to release the frog back to the wild the next day. See pictures of the Jenaro Herrera artisans at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1429902723705253
Meet Dora, her cousin Doilith, and aunt Hilda - three creative artisans from the town of Jenaro Herrera on the Ucayai River. The Center for Amazon Community Ecology has been working with this family of artisans to weave a new series of Amazon animal ornaments from chambira palm fiber. They are drawing inspiration and new models based on butterflies in their backyard and a Birds of Peru book that I showed them on a recent visit. See all photos in the album at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1429902723705253
Getting to Baltimori included a 3 hour hike through the woods. Getting back from Baltimori to Puerto Maldonado began with a ride on a local boat carrying people, platanos (cooking bananas), large bags of charcoal, and assorted chicks and roosters. The boat dropped us off in the town of Infierno (literally Hell) where we waited for an hour and a half before we finally crammed into a car heading into the city.
On my last full day visiting the Camino Verde team at Baltimori on the Tambopata River, I took a leisurely stroll around the reforestation center with CV director Robin Van Loon and researcher Olivia Revilla. I saw some cool trees and bugs (and got stung by one nasty wasp). Below is one "artistic" rendition of Olivia walking behind a forked tree. Check out the full album of pics on the CACE page at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1427506673944858
Most people know balsa wood as the super light-weight wood used for making little glider airplanes. Several of our artisan partners use it for making turtle, armadillo and other Amazon animal ornaments. While we normally only buy crafts from non-timber products, balsa grows so easily and so fast that there's no danger about over-exploiting it. Camino Verde has a bunch of balsa wood trees growing at its farm on the Tambopata River. Its fruit is a tall spike that's full of fluff when mature. This fluff may have some commercial use, but it's fun to play with.
Do you know how to properly prune a tree? See pics below of Juan pruning canela alcanforada trees at the Camino Verde farm at Baltimori on the Tambopata River. See Day 2 album for full selection of photos at: https://www.facebook.com/amazonecology.org/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1422236921138500.
