According to the US Department of Agriculture honey bees alone pollinate 80% of all flowering plants. Their pollination of over 130 different species of vegetables and fruits means that these
Families in Amazonia certainly rely on their home gardens for much of their food, and take surplus to markets in Iquitos or Puerto Maldonado, for example, to supplement their income
Anyone walking in the Amazon Rainforest knows that the forest is tall, very tall. From the herbaceous layer of plants on the forest floor through shrubs, understory trees, canopy trees
“Ha! Careful, they’ll try and go up your nose!” I turn and see Jospeh See, an ACEER conservation fellow, covered in bees. As they’re latching onto his hair and covering
The metal bridge in downtown Puerto Maldonado, above the mighty and murky Madre de Dios river, is not just any bridge. This 750-meter long suspension bridge, officially called the ‘Puente
In any visit to a market in an Amazonian town, one will find the local “pharmacy” section. A robust zone dedicated to whole and processed medicinal plants for use in
‘The smell hits you like a train. Burned hair, rotting flesh, and old meat that’s not smoked for flavor but for necessity. Anyone who is solely used to eating western
Let’s make this year the year to start saving your garden’s bounty by harvesting seeds.
Last month I discussed “bad” bugs, which can be really bad news for home gardeners. Luckily, many species of insects are beneficial, and often help do the dirty work of
Well, the answer of insects in the garden as friend or foe is – both. There are millions of insect species throughout the world and scientists estimate that there are
As a novice conservation ecologist I had the adventurous task of monitoring wildlife populations in the Peruvian Amazon. My perspiring students and I would walk in a straight line through
Anyone who has walked a trail in the Amazon is aware of a very subtle, steady, quiet descent of dead leaves and other plant materials from the canopy above. This
The soils in Amazonia are so notoriously poor in nutrients, that plants have evolved diverse ways of capturing nutrients from dead leaves, stems, bark, fallen fruit and more. So successful
The air in the kitchen shimmers with the heat, but Marina doesn’t sweat as she leans over her moledor to begin pounding yet another batch of boiled, steaming yuca waiting
In a world fundamentally altered, and existentially threatened by climate change, it would benefit all of us to become far more adept at the art of care and careful attention – so that we stop creating problems we don’t know how to fix.
The seasonal loss of leaves by deciduous trees and their subsequent dormancy during the winter in northern latitudes is not a scenario that is typically played out in the lowland
Although we are now into January, it is not too soon to be thinking of the coming year’s growing season, and employing permaculture techniques just might be the way you
In Amazonia, native people have relied on the healing properties of medicinal plants for millenia.
