Selva Maya III

Fitting a dendrometer band around a Manilkara tree.

Reading the band with a caliper to see how much the tree has grown.

The forest management systems used by communities in the Selva Maya are very good - but there is always room for improvement.  The growth data used to calculate harvest volumes and rotation lengths, for example, are based on government estimates.  This could cause big problems.  If the growth estimates are too high, you'd cut more wood than you should. If the growth estimates are too low, you'd be leaving valuable timber in the forest.  Better to actually measure how fast the trees are growing.

In 2005, with support from the Overbrook Foundation, we started an extensive study of tree growth in the Selva Maya using stainless-steel dendrometer bands.  The research included 21 timber species (in addition to mahogany) and invoved 7 forestry ejidos.  The communities banded almost 3,000 sample trees.  As far as I can tell, this is the largest community-based study of tree growth ever initiated in the tropics.

Selva Maya II

Load of logs near the town of Tres Garantias.

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) boards outside the mill at NohBec.

Local communities have been managing the forests of the Selva Maya since pre-Columbian times.  In recent years, community forestry in the region has focused on timber, in particular the production of export-quality Mahogany timber.   The forestry operations of several ejidos in the Selva Maya have been certified to be sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).  These were some of the first sustainably managed tropical forests to be recognized anywhere in the world. [NOTE: For more information about pre-Columbian forestry go here].

Selva Maya

The Selva Maya as seen from the ruins of Becan, Campeche

The Selva Maya extends through Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.  Comprising more than 5 million hectares, it is the largest contiguous tract of tropical forest in Central America, and second only to Amazonia in the New World. Much of the intact forest in Amazonia is conserved in parks, reserves, and other types of protected areas under government control. In contrast, over half of the forest in the Selva Maya is owned communally by ejidos. The forest are maintained because the local communities have chosen to maintain them.   There are valuable lessons to be learned here.

Naga Festival

The elephants hadn't arrived yet so we were forced to stay in Shimbweyang another day.  Fortuitous, actually.  There was a Naga festival that morning with gongs, and spears, and feathers, and dancing, and chanting, and flowers, and layers and layers of bracelets and necklaces.  All performed with the foothills of the Indian Himalayas in the backgorund.

Mescal

Agave cupreata Trel & Burger

Fermenting Agave mash ("tepache") in oak barrels

Master mescaleros from Acateyahualco, Guerrero 

Mescal is made by fermenting the leaf bases of several species of Agave that grow in Mexico.  Agaves are monocarpic, and the leaf bases of the plant are highly enriched with sugar prior to flowering.  The incipient flower stalk is cut the moment it starts to emerge, and the mass of sugary tissue at its base, i.e. the "piña", is harvested and fermented.  Clearly, if all the adults in the population are harvested, there will be no seeds to produce the next generation of plants and the local supply of mescal will soon disappear.

Communities in Guerrero, Mexico have developed sophisticated systems for maintaining a local source of mescal (Agave cupreata).  A select number of adult plants are left unharvested, and the seeds are collected, dried, and broadcast throughout the harvest area.  By managing wild populations of agave in tropical dry forest, the mescaleros in Guerrero are conserving a biodiversity-rich habitat, improving community livelihoods, and preserving an important cultural tradition.

Jizo Bodhisattva

Jizo (Kamakura period,1185-1333)

I went to the Met yesterday to see the painted palm-leaf folios of the Prajnaparamita Sutra.  They were exquisite, but they wouldn't let me take pictures.  I was, however, able to photograph several of my favorite pieces from the permanent collection, e.g. the larger than life-sized, wooden Jizo Bodhisattva with his pilgrim's staff and bright jewel of Dharma truth. 

Mandalay Express

After finishing the rattan survey in the Hukaung Valley (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey), we arrived at Myitkyina to learn that our flight to Yangon had been canceled and that no planes would be available in the near future. Our flight from Bangkok to New York was in four days. For lack of any better options, we decided to traverse the 919 miles from Myitkyina to Yangon by train.  We bought our tickets, got blessed by a Buddhist monk, and then wobbled and lurched and squirmed for almost 48 hours.

[NOTE: Music (local pop) was playing the entire trip - all night and all day.  They never turned the lights out in the cars for security reasons. The springs kept popping out of the cushion of my seat.]

To drift like clouds, flow like water

Yangon, Myanmar 2003

Jinghong, China 2005

[NOTE: The Japanese term for a novice monk is "unsui", which translates literally as cloud water, i.e. moving freely without the constraints and limitations of attachments.]

Ba Vi

Ba Vi National Park is located about 65 km west of Hanoi. There are 1,229 steps to the summit of Ba Vi Mountain and the temple to Ho Chi Minh.  Halfway up is a small Buddhist shrine. [NOTE: The clip ends panning out over the Red River Valley towards Hanoi.]

Camu-camu

From 1984 to 1987, I lived and did research along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.  One of my study species was a small riparian shrub, Myrciaria dubia HBK McVaugh, known locally as "camu-camu". The fruits of camu-camu have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any fruit in the world.  Oranges have 30 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp, rose hips have about 100 mg, and camu-camu, in a class by itself, has 3,100 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp. The species grows in extremely dense stands along the banks of ox-bow lakes.  I ate a lot of camu-camu fruit while I was studying the ecology of this species.  It made blisters on my lips...but I never got a cold.

[NOTES: The second image shows a fruit collector in Supay cocha near my study site in Peru.  This picture was on the front page of the Washington Post (below the fold) on June 29, 1989.  All images were scanned from slides.]