NGOs

PELUM Association

Allowing diverse institutions to exchange lessons they have learned is one of the strengths of the PELUM network. Some of its diverse institutional members – ranging from the Tanzania Organisation of Permaculture Promoters in Dar es Salaam to Integrated Rural Development Initiatives in Kampala, Uganda – are sure to be featured in future issues of the People and Plants Handbook. /GJM

PELUM, Participatory Ecological Land Use Management, was launched in 1995. It is a regional membership organization covering east and southern Africa. The main thrust of its work is strengthening the training skills of its members. It began its work by developing curricula on participatory land use management. This has led, among other outputs, to the development of an agroecology and community development syllabus to be used in 2-year courses in Zimbabwe, a pilot program for the region.

The Association has conducted courses on curriculum design, project monitoring, permaculture, holistic resource management and participatory rural appraisal in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The Association distributes training materials (including books and posters produced in east and southern Africa) more widely in the region. In the future, the Association plans to produce a magazine on participatory ecological land use management in the region, and become active in advocacy and lobbying.

‘PELUM activities are depicted on the petals of a flower, as if to signify the link with farmers and the desire to grow, develop and mature into seed and food of tomorrow. The activities include: syllabi development, training in materials development, information sifting and exchange, searching out new innovations, accreditation, advocacy, skills bank development.’

Mukute, M. 1997. A flower of our future – PELUM Association is launched. Forest, Trees and People 32/33:14-17.

CONTACT

John Wilson, Coordinator, PELUM Association,
Box MP 1059, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe;
Tel. +263.4.744470, Fax +263.4.726911,
E-mail pelum@mail.pci.co.zw

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The Future of Tropical Rainforest Peoples

In Papua New Guinea, the main topics for APFT include the impact of logging, local perception of the environment, the city-forest interface, and land and resource use in general. Ethnobotany is one of the major methodological approaches taken. European and national researchers work together at two main field locations, one a low-altitude area subject to logging, another a mid-altitude wildlife management and conservation area. APFT is firmly embedded the National Research Institute’s focus on the conservation of renewable resources. / CKS

The Future of Tropical Rainforest Peoples project (Avenir des Peuples des Forêts Tropicales, or APFT) is a consortium of five European institutions. It was established in 1996 to investigate the interaction between human ecology and the environment. A primary objective of the project is to develop understanding of the human ecology of rainforest peoples and their indigenous knowledge by improving research and development capacities. The project seeks to improve the viability of development and conservation projects; develop and coordinate expertise in Europe and ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries; and stimulate reflection and awareness by decision makers.

The five member institutions give a balance between natural and social science efforts in forest conservation. The major disciplines involved are anthropology, archaeology, demography, ecology, economics and paleo-environmental studies. Some of the questions addressed include: Are the activities of these populations compatible with the maintenance of biodiversity or are they ecologically destructive? Can traditional knowledge and techniques contribute to the elaboration of new and more efficient forest management models? What types of strategies do these populations develop when their sociological and economic structures are weakened or when their environment is endangered? What kind of participatory management can be effective?

Research activities are being undertaken in Central Africa, Papua New Guinea and the three Guyanas. Belize, West Africa and other Pacific area countries will subsequently be included. Local researchers participate in all the projects, as collaboration between ACP and European researchers is fundamental to the APFT structure and its long-term viability. The APFT consortium is financed by the European Union, and has support for five years. In addition to the consortium, more than 15 other European and ACP institutions are interacting in the network. The long-term goal is for all these organizations to work together to produce realistic and pragmatic recommendations and actions.

‘The ecology of insular Southeast Asia has been dominated by rainforest for over 10,000 years, though it has changed much historically and is very varied geographically. One of the most immediately striking aspects of its variability is the significant decrease in Dipterocarp species as we move east and their replacement by dominants more typical of the Australo-Melanesian area … There are, however, many ecological similarities between Moluccan forests and those further west in island Southeast Asia. Not the least of these has been the role played by human populations. Forests have long been a focus of human subsistence extraction, and human agency has had decisive consequences for their ecology, for example, through the introduction and hunting of deer, the practice of small-scale swidden cultivation, the extraction of palm sago and selective logging and collection for exchange.’

Ellen, R.F. 1997. The human consequences of deforestation in the Moluccas. Civilisations 44:176-193.

CONTAC T

• Pierre de Maret, Coordinator for Africa, Centre d’Anthropologie Culturelle, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 124, 44 Avenue Jeanne, 1050, Bruxelles, Belgium; Tel. +32.2.6504338, Fax +32.2.6504337, E-mail apft@resulb.ulb.ac.be
• Willy Delvingt, Département des Eaux et Forets, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium; Tel. +32.81622321, Fax +32.81622301, E-mail sylviculture@fsagx.ac.be
• Serge Bahuchet, Laboratoire de Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale (LACITO), CNRS, 44 rue de l’Amiral Mouchez, 75014, Paris, France; Tel. +33.1.45809673, Fax +33.1.45805983, E-mail bahuchet@lacito.msh-paris.fr
• Pierre Grenand, Coordinator for Guyana, ORSTOM, Les Grands Moulins, 89460 Cravant, France; Tel./Fax +33.3.86425351, E-mail grenand@msh-paris.fr
• Roy Ellen, Coordinator for Papua New Guinea, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Eliot College, The University of Kent at Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NS, UK; Tel. +44.1227.764000, Fax +44.1227.827289, E-mail r.f.ellen@ukc.ac.uk

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Organization for Tropical Studies

Although the original focus of OTS was squarely on ‘pure’ tropical ecology, it has offered training opportunities in agroecology and has supported research on local ecological knowledge. In the past, John Vandemeer, Miguel Altieri and Jan Salick – well known for their research on tropical agriculture systems – have led a training course in agroecology. /GJM

The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) was created in 1963 to provide leadership in education, research and the wise use of natural resources in the tropics. It is a consortium of 55 universities and research institutions from the United States and Costa Rica.

OTS offers up to ten field courses per year in tropical biology and ecology, including Tropical Biology; Management of Natural Resources; Agroecology; Tropical Conservation Biology; and Tropical Plant Systematics. Though most of the field courses are held in Costa Rica (in English and Spanish), an annual course on Amazonian forest ecology (in Portuguese) has been run for the past 4 years in Manaus, Brazil. A wide range of short courses and workshops on environmental policy for US and Latin American legislators, administrators and government officials in several Latin American countries complement this program of intensive field courses.

OTS facilitates research at its three field stations in Costa Rica. La Selva Biological Station, in the northeast of the country, is in largely old growth tropical rainforest. Las Cruces Biological Station, which includes the Robert and Catherine Wilson Botanical Garden, is in mid-elevation cloud forest on the Pacific slope, while the Palo Verde Field Station is surrounded by semi-deciduous dry forest in northwestern Costa Rica. Research activities focus on assessing biological resources and local knowledge.

‘ La Selva and Barro Colorado Island (BCI) are perhaps the best-known forests in the New World tropics. Comparative studies can tell us which ecological processes are common to both sites and which are specific to a site. BCI is considerab1y drier than La Selva, receiving 2.5 meters of rain per year in comparison to La Selva’s 4 meters of rain. BCI has a distinct dry season from January through April, whereas La Selva’s rainfall is more aseasonal. The climate and, to some extent, the floristics of the sites differ but many other features, such as the forest structure and animal communities, are similar. Thus we might expect some ecological processes to be the same at both sites and others to differ.’

Young, B. and C. Echeverría. 1995. Noticias de La Selva. OTS Liana, The Organization for Tropical Studies Newsletter, Summer/Fall: 4.

CONTACT

Gary S. Hartshorn, Executive Director,
Organization for Tropical Studies, Box 90630, Durham, NC 27708-0630, USA;
Tel. +1.919.6845774, Fax +1.919.6845661,
E-mail ghartsho@acpub.duke.edu
Website http://www.ots.duke.edu/ or http://cro.ots.ac.cr/

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