Nature reserve for eco-tourism
(150 hectares)
Dark green project presentation
afforestation for the future
(20 hectares)
Each family of the village of Gamboa will have one hectare of forest with timber to reduce the encroachment on the rest of the territory's forest. On the one hand, the reforestation aims to use fallow land sensibly and, on the other hand, the self-planted forest should give the families long-term material and financial security. The best tropical timbers are known to the men of Gamboa, for only certain trees are so water-resistant that they are suitable for building houses on stilts. One of the two previous contractors for afforestation of 100m x 100m is Jonathan Ahue and proposes to plant Quinilla Blanca (aka Pouteria guianensis), Quinilla Roja (aka Manilkara bidentata) and Capirona (aka Calycophyllum spruceanum).
Current status of the project:
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Signing of a contract with Heber Levis Santos and Jonathan Ahue for afforestation of one hectare each on November 24th, 2022
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Agreed expense allowance: 500,000 Colombian pesos (= around €100) per hectare. The proposal came from the contractors, but could be increased at a price of less than €1 per tree as an additional incentive.
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Time of project implementation: The trees can only be planted in the dry season between March and November 2023. A specific date is being planned.
Thanks to the legal expansion of territory in November 2022, it is up to the Ticuna community in Gamboa to decide how to use this additional territory. The plan is to create a 150 hectare (500m x 3,000m) protected area on Lago San Pedro bordering an existing private eco-tourism concession. The suggestion came from the "Apo" himself, the temporarily elected tribal leader of Gamboa. First of all, however, this measure is to be voted on. From an ecological point of view, this protected area would make sense without encroaching on the forest and fishing, because not only animals living on land, but also the fish and caiman population would have a retreat. Economically, with the help of eco-tourism, a long-term source of income could form and possibly attract research projects in the future.
Current status of the project:
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Contract signed with Pastor Fermin Ponciano ("Apo" from Gamboa) to create a minimum1m x 1m map in the center of the village of Gamboaon 11/24/2022
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Agreed expense allowance: $20 for chairing the discussion with arguments for creating the sanctuary and $100 for creating a map as detailed as possible showing the sanctuary.
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Time of project implementation: Interim status to be clarified, map should be set up from March 2023, before that Gamboa is flooded.
Gamboa, Peru
Gamboa is an indigenous Ticuna village on the Peruvian bank of the Amazon. From Leticia (Colombia) it takes about 40 minutes in a simple wooden boat before turning left upstream into a small tributary of the Amazon. After a few minutes you can already see the first villagers getting the fish out of the boat at the piers, washing clothes or children playing in the water.
A total of around 200 people live in the village of Gamboa, which mainly depends on fishing, subsistence farming,extractivismand some tourismlives.There is one in the villagen nursery, aSchool with two teachers and a large soccer field where the men of the village come together every day at 4 p.m. to play sports.
All the houses are built on wooden stilts as Gamboa is in the heart of the Várzea rainforest and the Amazon rises about 8 meters every year in this area. The Varzea is an alluvial forest ecosystem and in the rainy season, between December and April, there is more than 3,000mm of precipitation (= liters per square meter). Life shiftsh then increasingly towards the water, while many species of fish and waterfowl, but also caimans, come closer to the village.
The flooded areas of the Amazon represent a unique habitat and are particularly rich in biodiversity. As part of a study,3,615 tree species(!) counted by a research team in this biome.
Shaping the future of the village
In November 2022, a legal expansion of the territory was carried out, which is possible due to Peruvian indigenous rights and has now been financially supported in the implementation by a non-profit organization. The now expanded territorial claim is intended to reduce the exploitation of the forest by strangers and ill-considered sales. If the village of Gamboa succeeds in meeting the goals agreed with the non-profit organization for the sustainable use of the (new) area, annual funding will be made available for the realization of projects in the village, such as a well.
The first two of Dunkelgrün's own rainforest projects are now also based on this context. Central to all activities is that sustainable land use and eco-tourism as sources of income offer the residents of Gamboa a new perspective. To this end, they should be supported in the realization of small forest plots with timber and the establishment of a nature reserve. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to protect as much of the area's rainforest area as possible and leave it increasingly untouched.
"El Amazonas está enfermo."
Young worker at a lodge, Gamboa
(11/06/2022)
History of the Ticuna on the Amazon
The Ticuna tribe now numbers around 62,000 people and is spread across the Amazonian border triangle of Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The cause of the dispersal and reduction of the population was their enslavement during the rubber fever of 1879 and 1912. As a result of the Colombian-Peruvian War in 1933, indigenous tribes were again displaced.
Today, the Ticuna tribes are mostly back in their original territory, albeit much deeper in the rainforest than before. Their cultural heritage has suffered from colonization and war, and original costumes are mainly found in the museum.
Nevertheless, their language is learned in schools, both spoken and written, along with Spanish, and some traditional behaviors are continued.Now the 21st century and the growing ecological awareness offers the unique opportunity to revive the preserved closeness to nature of the Ticuna.
