Arrival in Amazonas for Artisan Facilitator Training workshop

Arrival in Amazonas for Artisan Facilitator Training workshop

by Campbell Plowden April 07, 2022

"At the first house we passed, we were greeted by Sr. Luis and his friendly dog carrying a young squirrel monkey passenger. The dog has been the monkey's closest companion since Luis rescued him as an orphaned baby."

Continue Reading

ARTISANS LEARN TO DRAW A BIRD

ARTISANS LEARN TO DRAW A BIRD

by Campbell Plowden April 07, 2022

"We asked each person to draw a profile of their bird that they could use as a guide for the model they would weave next. It would ideally be drawn so they would know the shape and size of each part of the bird. They would next analyze the colors of the bird in the photo and decide what color or combination of colors they would use to make each part."

Continue Reading

Appreciations for Jim Finley – a mentor and forester who cared deeply about people and nature

Appreciations for Jim Finley – a mentor and forester who cared deeply about people and nature

by Campbell Plowden December 27, 2021

Most faculty members are super-busy with multiple tasks so I was astounded when Jim welcomed me into his office and spent two hours discussing my ideas about studying the ecology, management and marketing of non-timber forest products with a native community in the Brazilian Amazon.  While I had not taken a single class in forestry, we brainstormed every topic with great enthusiasm, and he treated me with the respect that some academics only grant their peers with a proven track-record.

Continue Reading

Amazon Ecology partners with Penn State Social Entrepreneur class

Amazon Ecology partners with Penn State Social Entrepreneur class

by Campbell Plowden July 13, 2021

The student teams have given us a lot of valuable information and recommendations for ways to improve our website, work with influencers and social media, better frame our goals and achievements for the public and funders, and begin to understand the level of staffing and financial resources we will need to become a sustainable organization.  - Campbell Plowden, Executive Director, Amazon Ecology

Continue Reading


GETTING STUFF DONE IN IQUITOS

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 28, 2018

GETTING STUFF DONE IN IQUITOS

While it can be very hard to get certain kinds of things done in Peru in an efficient way (like standing in line for hours to pay a bill at a bank), it’s a fun adventure to get other stuff done in a fun, timely and affordable way. I went out on Sunday to get some basic supplies for our house and got most of them at a modern store called Quispe, but right around the corner I found a fellow named Elmo who is the owner of one of the typical mobile micro-stalls (about 3 x 2 x 5 feet) that is his shop for his business to make copies of keys and help people with other kinds of locks. He first used one of those simple machine to make a rough cut of the key copy from the original. He then used a narrow grinder to fine-tune the copy.

I was really impressed that he used a hand caliper to measure the depth of each notch in the original key and the copy he was making. He eyeballed any minute differences because the calipers had no graduated lines on them. Elmo had been doing this work for 30 years so I felt pretty confident that his keys that cost me $1.25 each to make would work. He gave me his phone number to reach him just in case. His copies got me in my house just fine, but I’d like to see him again just to learn more about his life.

While the lease that we signed to rent our new house for CACE in Iquitos said everything was in good working order, we’ve discovered a few things that needed fixing to make the place more comfortable, safe and functional for our needs. As soon Tulio moved into the house, he met our neighbor Jorge who quickly became our go-to motorcar driver. When we mentioned to Jorge yesterday that we had a few plumbing issues that needed tending to, he said he had a friend who could handle them.

Julio showed up ten minutes later. They quickly determined that the threads in the faucet in the kitchen sink were stripped, the sink in my bathroom was leaking because the pipe under it was totally rusted through, and the sink in Tulio’s bathroom was clogged and just needed cleaning. After several trips to the hardware store to get various new pipes, glue, and tape, Julio donned my headlamp and used his and Jorge’s collection of old saws and wrenches to replace or clean all of the degraded items.

Julio returned this morning and spent the better part of the day doing four more tasks: 1) installing new pipes connecting our elevated water tank in the back patio to faucets in the work sinks so we could distill our rosewood material with an abundant supply of cooling water, 2) installed a new section of mosquito netting in my bedroom, 3) installed a new section of mosquito netting in the space above my bathroom, and 4) fixed up a wire in the back patio that was loosely connected by duct tape that was hanging out of a busted piece of PVC pipe.

We paid a total of about $25 in materials and $50 in labor for all seven jobs and everyone felt good about the tasks that were done. Julio looked around the house as he was leaving and said “please call me if you need anything done. I can fix your roof, put up a wall…….” Tulio told me tonight that Julio is someone who is referred to here as a “mil oficios” – someone who can do a thousand things. I know we have handymen in the US, too, but I’m awfully glad that I met Julio here.

Continue Reading

STINGLESS BEES AT CHINO

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 27, 2018

STINGLESS BEES AT CHINO One of the houses I also visit first at Chino belongs to the veteran artisan Romelia and her husband Jorge. Jorge is one of the folks in the village who has maintained several wooden box nests with stingless bees as part of a honey producing project developed under the guidance of German Perilla from George Mason University in Virginia. While these bees don't produce as much honey as their stinging honeybee counterparts, their honey is highly valued for its strong flavor and medicinal properties.

During my last visit, Jorge's nest boxes were in his back yard. This time, he had placed both at opposite ends of his kitchen to keep a closer eye on them. I took several shots of bees coming and going out of the entrance tube as well as the guard which is always on duty to prevent the entrance of unwelcome visitors (other bees, flying ants, etc.) who might wish to invade to prey on their young.

Check out the video Beekeeping in the Amazon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca2kYBJN4tI) focused on a stingless bee project developed with Maijuna native communities by OnePlanet.Org and its director (and CACE board member) Michael Gilmore.

Continue Reading

FINDING BEAUTY ALL AROUND YOU - 360 video

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 26, 2018

FINDING BEAUTY ALL AROUND YOU - 360 video Please check out the latest CACE video FINDING BEAUTY ALL AROUND YOU – 360 VIDEO (at: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/amazon-native-artisans-and-rainforest-conservation/ that CACE made for our submission to the 2018 GlobalGiving Video Contest. It has scenes of traveling on the river, Bora artisans collecting chambira palm leaves in the forest, women gathered at a skill-sharing workshop to make new handicrafts. This is our first video shot with a 360 degree video camera so you can literally look all around the scene by clicking on the up/down/left/right arrows on the screen or moving the viewpoint of the scene with your mouse. The video was shot and edited by Tulio Davila and narrated by Campbell Plowden. You can also see the video on our Amazon Ecology channel on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4sqNCJ8Wz8. I hope you enjoy looking around the Amazon from the artisan's point of view.

Support native artisans & rainforest in the Amazon

This project will help build sustainable livelihoods and conserve rain forests in ten native and campesino communities in the Peruvian Amazon by promoting planting, sustainable harvest and sale of value-added non-timber forest products. It will empower over 200 native artisans and woodsmen to create...
globalgiving.org

Continue Reading

CACIQUES AT CHINO

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 25, 2018

CACIQUES AT CHINO I spent a wonderful 4 days at the village of El Chino on the Tahuayo River earlier this week. I went there with our CACE team and three artisans from San Francisco on the Maranon River so they could teach Chino artisans how to weave several types of birds that they could sell to us and tourists who visit their village. One of my favorite birds to see in Chino and other parts of the Amazon is the Yellow-rumped Cacique (Cacicus cela) locally known as "pau car." Like other oropendulas (Latin for "hanging egg"), they weave nests in colonies which hang from the branches of a tree. Their calls are varied and often sound like large falling drops of water. I hung out near a tree with many nests to try to get a few good shots of the birds darting in and out of their nest entrances. More about the workshop tomorrow. See some videos with sound of the cacique at: https://www.hbw.com/ibc/species/yellow-rumped-cacique-cacicus-cela

Continue Reading


Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 05, 2018

Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/amazon-rainforest-hit-by-surge-in-small-scale-deforestation-study-finds/?utm_source=Mongabay+Email+Alerts&utm_campaign=ab7ad60990-mailchimp_peru_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e1ea8b5f35-ab7ad60990-77138285

Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds
news.mongabay.com

Continue Reading

Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology February 05, 2018

Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds

https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/amazon-rainforest-hit-by-surge-in-small-scale-deforestation-study-finds/?utm_source=Mongabay+Email+Alerts&utm_campaign=ab7ad60990-mailchimp_peru_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e1ea8b5f35-ab7ad60990-77138285

Amazon rainforest hit by surge in small-scale deforestation, study finds
news.mongabay.com

Continue Reading

Deadline approaching! Submit your organized session/workshop proposals to "Belém...

by Glenn Shepard January 28, 2018

Deadline approaching! Submit your organized session/workshop proposals to "Belém +30", XVI Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology by February 20. Individual paper/poster submissions open March 1 and close April 5. Online submissions and more information https://www.ise2018belem.com

Continue Reading

BARRANQUERO BIRD LANDS AT THE BARRANQUERO CAFE (AND ONLINE)

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology January 24, 2018

BARRANQUERO BIRD LANDS AT THE BARRANQUERO CAFE (AND ONLINE)

Last year I walked into a new hip coffee shop in State College called the Barranquero Café and noticed photos and paintings of a long-tailed bird I recognized as the blue-crowned mot mot – an insect catching bird I’d seen in the Birds of Peru book I’d been perusing with some Amazonian artisans.

It was great to meet the Barranquero’s owner Susan Jermusyk and learn that she gave her shop the local name for this beautiful bird that frequents the Colombian highlands where her coffee comes from. Beyond inviting us to sell a variety of our crafts in the café two times last year, we agreed to commission our talented artisan partners in Peru to weave a model of this bird she could sell in her café year-round. \

On my next trip south, I gave photos of the bird to artisans from the village of San Francisco on the Marañon River, and six months later four artisans showed me their prototypes. Susan thought they were good, but the orange breast of the Amazonian type didn’t seem quite like the bird she knew. She gave me a few photos she had taken showing the yellow breast of the Colombian variety which I shared with our Peruvian artisan friends.

I was thrilled that Susan and her staff were excited to see the newest barrranqueros – especially the expression in their eyes and black spot below the neck. We are both happy that this trans-American fair-trade collaboration can benefit local people in Peru and Colombia.

Please visit the Barranquero Café at 324 E Calder Way in downtown State College to buy one of these unique ornaments and enjoy some tasty Colombian coffee and food.

You can also find a few barranquero ornaments online at: https://amazon-forest-store2.myshopify.com/products/fair-trade-christmas-tree-blue-crowned-mot-mot-ornament-orbp46c. See these and other fair-trade ornaments and crafts for sale at our online Amazon Forest Store at: www.amazonforeststore.org.

Learn more about the blue-crowned mot mot (Momotus coeruliceps) and hear its call at: https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/bucmot1/overview.

Continue Reading


680000 acres of Amazon rainforest may be lost to Peru’s new roads

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology January 22, 2018

680000 acres of Amazon rainforest may be lost to Peru’s new roads Check out this story from Mongabay News about two proposed roads that would threaten huge areas of the Peruvian Amazon. https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/680000-acres-of-amazon-rainforest-may-be-lost-to-perus-new-roads/?utm_source=Mongabay+Email+Alerts&utm_campaign=d891496145-mailchimp_peru_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e1ea8b5f35-d891496145-77138285

680000 acres of Amazon rainforest may be lost to Peru’s new roads
news.mongabay.com

Continue Reading

PERU DECLARES NEW NATIONAL PARK IN NORTHERN PERUVIAN AMAZON

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology January 15, 2018

PERU DECLARES NEW NATIONAL PARK IN NORTHERN PERUVIAN AMAZON Amazing news about the creation of a national park in Loreto near the area where CACE has been working with native communities in the Ampiyacu River region. https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/peru-declares-a-huge-new-national-park-in-the-amazon/?utm_source=Mongabay+Email+Alerts&utm_campaign=25fd65a4fe-mailchimp_peru_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e1ea8b5f35-25fd65a4fe-77138285

Peru declares a huge new national park in the Amazon

LORETO REGION, Peru — Starting yesterday, 868,927 hectares of forest in Peru’s Loreto Region will be protected through the creation of Yaguas National Park, comprising a mega-diverse ecosystem that, until…
news.mongabay.com

Continue Reading

MARVELOUS SPATULETAIL HUMMINGBIRD - ORNAMENT FOR SALE

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology January 14, 2018

MARVELOUS SPATULETAIL HUMMINGBIRD - ORNAMENT FOR SALE

The Center for Amazon Community Ecology (CACE) has just received a limited batch of colorful Marvelous Spatuletail Hummingbird ornaments for sale online in our online Amazon Forest Store at: https://amazon-forest-store2.myshopify.com/products/fair-trade-christmas-tree-hummingbird-woven-ornament-orbp43. Proceeds create sustainable livelihoods for native artisans and support health, education, and conservation in their communities.

These ornaments were hand-made from chambira palm fiber by 17-old artisan Heriberto Vela from the village of San Francisco on the Maranon River in association with CACE.

The marvelous spatuletail (Loddigesia mirabilis) lives in small regions of the northern Peruvian Andes. The male uses its tail feathers to court the female of his choice. This hummingbird is highly endangered due to destruction of its habitat, hunting, and its its inherently small population.

Read more about efforts to protect this and other rare birds at https://abcbirds.org/bird/marvelous-spatuletail/. Thanks to David Cook Wildlife Photography for permission to use his photo of this bird in the wild. See original at: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/46/4c/5a464cb9a5fab1dbc46d9133e7b0a867.jpg

Continue Reading

AROMATIC SOAP AND AYAHUASCA AT BELLEFONTE VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS SHOW

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology December 10, 2017

AROMATIC SOAP AND AYAHUASCA AT BELLEFONTE VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS SHOW Sales of our Amazon handicrafts at the show yesterday were steady but slow. Down times gave me a chance to chat a bit with my vendor neighbors Bethany Carter and Heather Emminger who were selling their cold pressed soaps in their BelleNaturals line. I was impressed by their extensive knowledge and use of a variety of essential oils in their products. I was very happy that Heather bought and agreed to show off the necklace made by Peruvian artisan Damaris Esther Panaifo Coral that she got from the CACE booth that featured a round piece of moonstone, ayahuasca vine, and a pair of tiger eye stones. The moonstone looks clear when held to the light, but it beautifully reflects other colors behind it.

Continue Reading



« Previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 16 Next »