Ashaninka Sustainability
The Ashaninka (or Kampa) Indigenous Land of the Amônia
River is located in the State of Acre, on the border with Peru.
In a single large village inhabited by 72 families, the Ashaninka
combine economic activities with the controlled use of natural
resources so as to preserve their culture and their territory.
Learn about the activities carried out by the Apiwtxa - Associação
Ashaninka do Rio Amônia - (Amônia River Ashaninka
Association) in partnership with NGOs, universities, private enterprises
and public organs.
Murmuru nuts, seeds and
vines
Murmuru nuts collected by the Ashaninka in the forest are sold
in the town of Cruzeiro do Sul, in the State of Acre, for Tawaya,
a company that processes vegetal shortenings made from forest
products and produces handmade soaps. Tawaya was created in 1996
as the result of a survey of forest products the Ashaninka carried
out in partnership with the São Paulo-based NGO Núcleo
de Cultura Indígena (Nucleus of Indigenous Culture) between
1992 and 1995. The word 'Tawaya' is the Ashaninka name for the
Igarapé (small Amazon waterway) Amoninha (a tributary of
the Amônia River), in whose mouth the survey took place.
In addition to Murmuru nuts, since 1994 the Ashaninka produce
and sell seeds of some dozen native species (among them mahogany
and cedar). The technical capacity-building for this activity,
as well as for the commercial part of the business, was made through
a partnership with IPEF (Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Florestais
- Institute of Forest Research and Studies), whose headquarters
are in the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (Esalq),
in Piracicaba, State of São Paulo.
In 1999 started the extraction of a vine known in the region
by the name of 'espera-aí' (wait there), also called 'unha-de-gato'
(Uncaria tomentosa), used in the manufacture of fito-therapeutic
products, bought by the company Biosapiens, which has agents in
Cruzeiro do Sul.
New economic activities
The Ashaninka are enlarging their roster of economic activities
through the project Capacitação em Métodos
de Manejo e Preservação de Abelhas Melíponas
(Capacity in the Stewardship and Preservation of Stingless Bees).
Despite the priority given to local consumption, there are plans
to sell surplus production.
A project begun in 2000 carried out by Funai technicians aims
at forming Indigenous agro-forestal agents, who will be in charge
of monitoring the use of natural resources. Each agent will work
in his own village, and is expected to take into account the knowledge
of his group on how to use the environment. Visits between villages
of different Indigenous groups in the region for the exchange
of experiences will take place.
It is also part of the project the creation of nutritional alternatives
for the school meals offered by the municipality (milk, sugar,
noodles, beans, oil, rice, canned goods and cookies) through the
production of bananas, pineapples, papaya, cashew, passion fruit,
potatoes, yams etc., as well as preparing, with the technical
support of specialists in pisciculture, a lake near the village
for fish cultivation.
Other projects currently under way include the recording of
a CD of Ashaninka songs and a video about the Amônia River
Ashaninka. Both aim not only at presenting the Ashaninka culture
to the outside world but its internal strengthening as well.
(Text edited from article by Margarete Kitaka Menezes, with
the collaboration of Francisco Piyãko and Fábio
Fernandes Dias).
