The tropical rainforests of Central and South America, along with their indigenous communities are of primary interest to Naturaleza and our partners. One of earth's last remaining balanced ecosystems - rainforests are being destroyed and fragmented with frightening speed. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project
has shown that our once vast network of rainforest laden ecosystems which ranged from the great Amazon basin of South America to southern Mexico now exist as scatterings of endangered rainforest lands. Survival of the cultures, earth knowledge and traditional ways of people who have lived for generations in harmony with their
environment is under increasing pressure.
Solutions to changing these patterns of loss depend on economic opportunities for indigenous communities and a shift in the economic value basis of our rainforests. Indigenous people must be able to generate significant income via their environmental and cultural resources and retain stewardship of their traditional lands.
The superior economic value of intact rainforest ecosystems and their sustainable conservation must be demonstrated.
Many hopeful development projects for indigenous communities fail because the roles of culture and tradition are ignored and the leadership of respected community leaders is not properly recognized. Conservation efforts centered on protection alone restrict access and use, leaving local people no way to provide for their
families and separating them from their traditional ways. Our Naturaleza family has a background of many years working on research, development and conservation projects with traditional healers, shamans and bushmasters of rich and varied cultures. We learned much from them observing their methods and vast intimate knowledge of
plants and their use in traditional healing. Through consultation with our traditional healer partners we became aware of two major concerns: loss of plants used for generations in the healthcare of their communities and loss of opportunities to transfer their knowledge to new healers. A vision for enabling real change was forming
- a model that could alleviate the crushing poverty of indigenous peoples and support preservation of our earth's richest and most pristine areas.
Based on locally produced medicinal herbal products and traditional healing services, our holistic model has three primary areas of focus and effort - acquisition and aggregation of land for conservation and protection, culturally appropriate economic development, and ongoing ethnobotanical research. All areas of focus interact with and support
the goals and activities of each. Our model evolves as ecopreserves indigenously managed for revenue production, conservation, and ethnobotanical research functioning within the context of a core-buffer zone system.
Huitoto communities and surrounding areas in the northwestern Peruvian Amazon ecoregion will be the location for our initial programming - the site specific Icaro Project. Successful implementation of the Icaro Project will make it a template for use in extending conservation-based economic enterprises to communities throughout
the proposed biological corridor under our longer range Mesa Initiative.
The following describes key aspects of the Icaro Project and Mesa Initiative.
Ecopreserves
Land comprising ecoproserves will include community and tribal lands, areas with current protection status, and newly purchased at risk-land areas. Feasibility for these preserves is supported by community involvement and management.
Core-buffer zone management allows for expansion and flexibility of zones based on presence, scarcity, and rarity of medicinal plant populations; and based on biodiversity hotspots and critical riparian areas. Buffer zones provide land for sustainable growth and traditional harvest of medicinal plants, establishment of Healer
Centers with Medicinal Gardens, research and support activities, and access for local communities and visitors. Core zones remain protected to maintain their deep ecological integrity and are under the control of local healers and community leaders.
Economic Development via Medicinal Herbs And Traditional Healing Services
Community-based development built on and around a platform of sustainably grown herbal products and traditional healing utilizes the unique rainforest environments and the vast plant medicine knowledge held by traditional healers. Partnering with traditional healers and bushmasters provides guidance in the correct
selection of plants for herbal products. Traditional harvest methods support the integrity of the phytochemical and energetic properties of the plants enabling those healing qualities to remain in the final product. All aspects of production embrace sustainability, organics and ecologically harmonious methods respecting and protecting the special places in which these plants are found and grown.
Naturaleza directly facilitates start up of these indigenous enterprises and supports their economic development through its for-profit sister entity, Earth Healers, an innovative global health and wellness company founded in conjunction with Naturaleza. Success for these herbal products businesses and their benefit to producer communities is being demonstrated through sales
by Earth Healers to North American healthcare practitioners and to consumers via the Internet. The structure of Earth Healers provides for revenue return to grower communities in addition to product purchase revenue. Capital is put back into the treasured and irreplaceable areas in which our partners live and work.
Traditional Healers Center with Medicinal Gardens
Collaboration with one of our primary partners, the Kekchi Healers Association of Southern Belize, led to development of the Healers Center and Medicinal Gardens concept. Organized as a center for traditional healing, the complex establishes a strong cultural presence and functions in several important ways. Healers have a physical location in which to
offer their services, thus enabling better health care for the community. A local market is established for herbal products grown in the area, giving community members and visitors access to high quality herbal medicines and providing income enhancement to the healers.
Loss of plant medicine knowledge is addressed as many opportunities for dissemination of plant knowledge are created through increased ability of healers to meet with each other, consult on cases, and interact with the community and visitors. Training of future healers is greatly facilitated through apprenticeship opportunities and availability of medicinal plants for study.
Medicinal plant gardens enable demonstration of plants used in traditional healing, their conservation and their use in economic development. Many of the more than 200 plants used by healers are rainforest species with low frequency of occurrence and spotty distributions. Gardens and accessible forest areas can be used for transplanting and propagation of
forest epiphytes, vines, and saplings for sustained use. Plots for more easily grown medicinals will be established for commercial use. These two growing venues eliminate harvesting pressure that has so damaged wildstocks in other areas.
The Healers Center and Gardens will play an integral role in biodiversity and wellness adventures offering guided visits to gardens and plant trails; and will be the location for participation in traditional healing ceremonies.
Wellness Adventures
Marketed through Earth Healers, Biodiversity and Wellness Adventures are a natural complement to the herbal products business development, traditional healing services and conservation efforts. Deep community connections and intimate partnerships enable participants access to traditional healing in the most unaltered form. Areas for wellness adventures are personally and carefully
selected by our partners and offer opportunities to touch the Earth Experience of balance and natural harmony with which our indigenous partners live.
Economic benefit flows to the community through their engagement and participation in tour activities. Awareness and appreciation of culture is enhanced through direct experience with healers and community members.
Research
Continuing botanical and ethnobotanical research is crucial to encouraging greater awareness of the economic potential for an intact rainforest and to the success and sustainability of community-based phytomedicine enterprises. Medicinal plants are identified in participatory research with healers providing a rich resource for potential revenue. Past applications of
ethnobotanical research into plant-based medicine have not yet adequately directed benefits to the original practioners and holders of this ancient wisdom. Intellectual property issues need to be addressed as well as deeper understandings of plants reserved for sacred ceremonial use and those whose healing benefits are to be shared with the world. Naturaleza and our research
partners promote research applications that empower traditional healers and their indigenous communities, recognizing their positions as the original practioners of plant medicine and holders of this generations-old knowledge.
Studies will be undertaken to scientifically examine various plants for efficacy and safety, improve quality of phytomedicines, understand the basis of traditional knowledge, and assist with selections appropriate for commercial development. Traditional healing will be studied as an emerging concept in integrated healthcare for indigenous and worldwide communities.
Production and propagation of exotic species will be studied for the first time at medicinal gardens.
Ex situ and in situ conservation as well as biodiversity resource management are key issues today and will be linked to the Central American Conservation Corridor projects. Rapid Ethnobotanical Surveys (RES), conducted for identification of endangered medicinal plants, will highlight species and prime areas for conservation efforts, contributing to more efficient use of funds.
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