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 tiny creatures have a huge role in global food production. Their precipitous population decline should send shock waves throughout the world. That’s why every effort to protect … Read more
The Amazon rainforest makes its own rain. And less forest means less precipitation. As forest destruction affects climate and vice versa, the concern is that the Amazon will be caught up in a set of feedback loops that could dramatically speed up the pace of forest loss and degradation and bring the Amazon to a point of no return. This ‘tipping point’ may occur when a certain percentage of Amazonian habitat dies, after which it will all turn into a savanna-like ecosystem.
Tanagers, Yellow Warblers, Bobolinks, Chivi Vireo, and more are all different types of migratory birds from the Amazon. Tanagers come in a wide variety of colors such as red and orange or a more grayish-blue. The male Scarlet Tanagers are known as the most gorgeous birds seen in the north during the summer, but they … Read more
Coca consumption has its origins in the ancient Inca tradition, but the scale at which it is used now has nothing to do with beautiful rituals anymore. It causes deforestation, contamination and violence.
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 and finally the giant emergent trees, vertical growth is what the forest is all about. And a closer look at the trees found at each level … Read more
“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 his macro camera, I can see he is beaming, perfectly in his element. We were in the midst of opening a tree trunk hive to … Read more
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 Guillermo Billinghurst’ after a Peruvian congressman, was finished in July 2011 and completed the 2600km-long Interoceanic Highway, which runs from the Atlantic Ocean through Brazil … Read more
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 treatment and in ceremony. Cat’s Claw, Dragon’s Blood, 7- and 21-Roots are just a few of the more popular preparations. The bulk herbs can be used … Read more
‘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 food, would doubt to eat anything there.’ – is how Dr. Brian Griffiths, researcher of hunting traditions and game species in the Peruvian Amazon, describes … Read more
By Carolyn Keller and Charles Sunday If you live in the U.S., it’s easier than it should be to relegate Native American experience to history. When we do get news about Native American and First Nations communities in North America, post-elementary school narratives – the ones beyond construction paper hats as Thanksgiving rolls around – … Read more
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 over 2.5 million insects in the Amazon Basin alone, many of which have not even been adequately described. Scientists working from ACEER supported canopy walkways … Read more
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 pristine rainforest, holding a GPS, binoculars and a datasheet, to record any monkey, jaguar or rat that we encountered. We had research permits to do … Read more
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 material covers the soil of the forest floor. Natural mulch! However, you can easily employ mulching in your own garden. Mulching cannot be overrated. By … Read more
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 are these plants in recycling nutrients that the vast majority of the nutrients in the rainforest are found in the forest biomass, not in the … Read more
Birding in the Amazon is just a wonderful activity! It became one of my favorite activities when I had the opportunity to participate in a bird’s inventory in the Peruvian Amazon, as a field research assistant. I was amazed by the incredible diversity of birds we saw every morning in every study site. I could … Read more
By Lindsay Schmittle, Gingerly Press My experience on the 2022 ACEER Artist Residency along the Sucusari River Basin deep in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru was definitely not your average artist residency experience. While this was my first true artist residency, I know that in most residencies, artists tend to spend the majority of their … Read more
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.
How a Paper Microscope is Paving the Way for Students, Teachers and Conservation One a cool Sunday in October of 2020, I did not rush inside to go watch any of the football games on my living room TV. I was so engaged with looking at the wings of a Spotted Lantern Fly for one … Read more
