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 »
Taking on slash-and-burn agriculture It’s not easy reaching Matsés territory, but finally, after a week of saying goodbye to my family in Iquitos only to return a couple hours later with yet another cancelled flight, the Peruvian Air Force float plane took off and soared off into the horizon. I was headed for the small […] Continue reading »
Urbano Pemen Dunú Urbano lives in the Matsés village of Buenas Lomas Antigua with his wife and two children. Urbano is fiercely independent and lives a very traditional life. He is highly skilled in hunting, fishing, climbing and orienteering himself in the dense jungle. Even among Matsés he is exceptional. Most of Urbano’s time is […] Continue reading »
Marina Ëshco Bai Unan Marina lives in the Matsés village of Estirón with her husband Lucho, four of her seven children and four of her grandchildren. She is an incredibly industrious person, tending up to three farms at any time. In addition to being a master farmer, Marina also enjoys weaving and craft making. A […] Continue reading »
Nothing is more challenging than advising experts. The Matsés indigenous people are master farmers, and it seems strange to even suggest farming ideas to people who live almost entirely off the land. The problem is that their traditional small-scale swidden (slash-and-burn) approaches to farming, once superbly adapted sustainable agriculture for a semi-nomadic lifestyle, do not […] Continue reading »