Support native artisans & rainforest in the Amazon

Thank you very much for your support for our project 'Grow Amazon artisan income & Peru rainforest trees' through GlobalGiving.  I am very proud of the work that our project manager Yully does with our partner communities in Peru every month, but sometimes a short-time volunteer can make a big difference as well.  This past spring we welcomed Tracy to work with us as an Amazon Field Volunteer for ten days.  While approaching her 34^th birthday, she decided to take a year off from her career path in marketing and communication to do community service with 34 non-profit organizations around the world in a project called ThirtyFortunate (https://www.facebook.com/34tunate).  I am very grateful that Tracy helped me tag and catalogue hundreds of handicrafts in Iquitos for several days.  She made an extra special contribution to our efforts, however, when she took the 12 hour trip by lancha (300 person ferry boat) from Iquitos to the town of Jenaro Herrera to help our copal research project. 

We have been studying the ecology and sustainable harvest of copal's aromatic tree resin for the past nine years.  The resin exudes onto the trunk when previously unknown species of bark-boring weevils chew into the inner bark to feed. This resin repels most insects, but these weevil larvae shape the resin into a protective chamber for themselves as they mature. Many types of bees collect this resin to build and defend their nests. While Amazon people usually harvest these lumps to caulk their wooden boats or make crude incense, we are distilling this resin to produce essential oil that native and campesino communities can sell to make money without cutting or burning the forest.  To try and develop methods for sustainably harvesting this resin, we have periodically harvested some lumps and then track how long it takes for the weevils and the resin lumps to recover.

Our copal project manager who has a degree in agronomy is now analyzing thousands of digital photos taken during the first phase of the study so we can publish our initial results and use them to guide our community-based copal projects in the Ampiyacu and other areas.  Since we want these local enterprises to be viable for many years, we have called on our long-time field assistant who I will call Alanzo to continue monitoring the recovery and growth of the resin lumps with low cost and low tech tools – i.e. a pen and paper.

Like many people who grow up in rural forest communities, Alanzo only completed 8^th grade in school.  He was an excellent woodsman, but instead of becoming a full-time farmer or fisherman, he wanted to support his family by assisting researchers who came through the government research station at Jenaro Herrera.  During the years he worked with us, he was a keen observer of nature, creative and meticulous with physical tasks, and reliably recorded numerical data.  What I only learned recently, however, was that he was almost illiterate.  We are trying to help him fill this gap, but we needed to find a way for him to do his job well in the short-term.

Our volunteer Tracy found a simple and creative solution to Alonzo's need.  While the data collection sheet that I designed for Alonzo had words on it, Tracy added simple illustrations to signify the different options he would need to write.  For resin condition, there is a 1 next to a drawing of a white lump (meaning it is fresh and sticky), a 2 next to a lump that is partially grey, and a 3 next to a lump that is black (meaning it is old and dry).  The same system is used to indicate different stages of tree reproduction (whether it has flowers or fruits) and other variables.  She then spent two days walking with him in the forest to make sure he was confident and competent using these tools to record his observations.  At the end of her visit, Alonzo said, "I was embarassed that my difficulty reading made some things so hard for me.  I am happy that I can do this job well now my own."  

We sometimes work with student interns from the local university to help us with certain tasks, but I feel it is very important to empower the people who live in the forest to be directly involved with these studies since they are the ones who will ultimately decide its fate. 

Thank you very much for your support that makes this project possible. Donations made to our project at www.AmazonAlive.net early on Wednesday, July 15 (GlobalGiving Bonus Day) will receive a 50% matching donation from other sponsors.

Best wishes,

Earlier this year, our project manager Yully Rojas organized two workshops to teach artisans from our partner villages in the Ampiyacu to make some of our best-selling handicrafts.  The first was a three-day gathering in the Bora village of Brillo Nuevo where veteran artisans showed sixty fellow artisans from six villages how they made popular models of hot pads and snake pattern belts.  The results were very good with the exception of a group that worked with a last-minute substitute teacher who didn’t know her model as well as expected.

I attended a two-day training in the thatched roof maloca (meeting house) in Puca Urquillo Huitoto where four artisan teachers taught their peers from five villages how to make another batch of special crafts.  Many women and children gathered around Siena on a large plastic sheet on the dirt floor to practice weaving an armadillo ornament.  Others gathered around Ania and Angelina to begin making the more complicated shushupe and naca naca models of guitar straps.  Many women said they learned a lot and acknowledged it was going to take a lot of practice to weave a high-quality strap.  We were pleased that Luz Elena, an artisan from Neuvo Peru joined the workshop for the first time.  She said, “I used to only know how to make bags and hammocks – now I can make a new kind of craft.”  It was disappointing that no artisans came from two nearby Yagua villages.  We have been trying to engage artisans from these communities in the project for a few years now, but we are learning that initial enthusiasm to get involved doesn’t always translate into long-term commitment. 

There was a cluster of men sitting on a side bench of the maloca using crude awls to etch a paiche (a giant Amazon fish) and other wildlife figures onto dark brown calabash tree pods.  When filled with beads, they become attractive hand rattles and Christmas tree ornaments.  Guillermo from Puca Urquillo had been trying to sell his ornaments to Yully without success for over a year.  He said, “I learned to make crafts 25 years ago when I was a teenager.  This workshop was very important, though, because it gave me a chance to compare, practice and improve my work with others.” Guillermo was very pleased that we bought almost all of the ornaments he made during the workshop.

At the conclusion of the workshop, each of the artisan groups expressed their thanks to CACE, GlobalGiving and other foundations for their support of artisan skill sharing.

While workshops are a potent way to promote artisan learning, we are also producing a DVD compilation of veteran artisans showing and explaining step-by-step how they make a variety of handicrafts for CACE.  Videographer Tulio Davila has now recorded more than 20 sessions with artisans from Brillo Nuevo and Puca Urquillo making a variety of woven belts, guitar straps, hot pads, hair barrettes, hat bands and water bottle carriers.  He accomplished a lot during his recent three week stint in the field, but the factors that slowed him down were a potent reminder that many things are beyond our control.  

Tulio could not shoot some craft models with black because high floods prevented artisan access to the fruit that is normally used to dye chambira this dark color.  He couldn’t work with a few key artisans who were understandably distracted when the husband of one failed to return from a hunting trip in the forest, and the husband of another was accused of killing him.  Fortunately the missing fellow wandered back to the village after three days – very hungry – but otherwise in good shape.  Oscar initially agreed to be filmed explaining how he weaves the popular “anaconda” model belts and guitar straps, but backed out when he was worried that his creation might be shared with artisans outside the region.

We are having to carefully and repeatedly explain to our partners that we will only be able to sell a few of their crafts if we can’t offer them in larger numbers with consistent high quality.  Since none of them would be able to fill an order from a wholesale buyer by themselves, they have to be willing to share their knowledge with each other if they want to increase their income from making and selling crafts.  Our promise to them is that these detailed training materials will not be shared with artisans beyond the 15 communities in the Ampiyacu federation.  Tulio is now busy editing the completed instructional videos into final form.  We need to raise more funds to complete the process of documenting all of the most popular models once the river water level returns to normal.

Thank you for your support for this project – particularly on Bonus Days when your contribution will be partially matched by other donors on GlobalGiving.

These key dates are:

Wednesday, May 13 (match amount will depending on total amount given to all projects)

Wednesday, July 15 (50% match given to donations made before matching funds run out)

Wednesday Sept. 16 (30% match given to donations made before matching funds run out)

We would appreciate your feedback and questions about our work.  Please contact me at cplowden@amazonecology.org.

Best wishes,

Campbell Plowden

Project Leader/Executive Director