Topic: amazon

June 2016 Field Update – Major developments in the Matsés Indigenous Mapping Initiative, Healing Forest Medicinal Agroforestry and more

Apprentices with Lucho in Healing Forest in Remoyacu.

Major developments in the Matsés Indigenous Mapping Initiative, Healing Forest Medicinal Agroforestry and more! Table of Contents An Inauspicious Start Transparency: Questions and Answers Matsés Traditional Medicine Encyclopedia Matsés Indigenous Mapping Initiative Healing Forests: Medicinal Agroforestry Finding Unity Epilogue Donate Today Two elder shamans and Encyclopedia authors incapacitated by snakebite in advance of inter-village meeting […] Continue reading »

February 2016 Field Report – Preserving Matsés agricultural heritage

adult siante tapun plant amazon

Preserving Matsés Agricultural Heritage The Matsés people of the Amazon are master farmers. Worldwide, inestimable indigenous agricultural knowledge has been lost in the process of acculturation. Forgotten often before it is realized what has been lost, the insidious erosion of traditional farming is a well paved path leading to weakened resiliency, increased dependence on outside […] Continue reading »

November 2015 Field Report – From sterility to abundance through revitalizing eroded land

Matsés swidden with plantains, manioc, and papayas, drawn by Matses artist Guillermo Nëcca Pëmen Mënquë

Small scale agriculture is one of the most important, yet least addressed, drivers of deforestation in the tropics today. In our Sustainable Agriculture Program, Acaté partners with expert Matsés farmers to develop innovative approaches to restore devitalized and eroded lands to abundance. Slash and burn agriculture, once superbly fitted in skilled hands to semi-nomadic existence, […] Continue reading »

Wild Perspectives from a Photographer’s Eye

three-toed sloth hanging amazon

Acclaimed wildlife photography and writing partners, Stephen and Marlo Kirkpatrick, share with Acaté their experiences of photographing and traveling the wilds of the Amazon rainforest. Their publications include the intimate and introspective photoessay Romancing the Rain: A Photographic Journey into the Heart of the Rainforest and Lost in the Amazon, the latter recounting a harrowing […] Continue reading »

Matsés Profile: Lucinda Damé

Lucinda Matsés farmer

Lucinda is the daughter of Arturo, a famous Matsés warrior and plant medicine expert who wrote Chapter 3 of the Matsés Medicine Encyclopedia. She lives with her family in Buenas Lomas Nueva. She is a prolific farmer and is very fond of showing off and sharing her bountiful harvests. Her house is a hub of […] Continue reading »