Training Amazonian communities in fruit tree propagation

Carlos Magdalena of RBG Kew’s Department of Horticulture demonstrating the propagation of Brazil nut through cuttings

Paradoxically, forest-dependent rural communities in the tropics often have little experience of propagating trees, either from seed or from cuttings and this is the case in the Bolivian Amazon. As part of initiatives to enhance non-timber forest use through agroforestry and fruit tree production we sought the support of the innocent foundation to bring Kew horticulturalist, Carlos Magdalena to the Pando to provide hands-on training to three rural communities. Carlos is well known in Kew’s tropical nurseries as an expert in the propagation of challenging species, he is also a native Spanish-speaker and experienced in training. The aim of our training was to help communities propagate material of species for which they either can’t get enough seed e.g. Sinini (Annona muricata), whose seeds have low fertility such as acerola(Malpighia emarginata) or which take a year or more to germinate, such as the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa).

A key requirement for cuttings to survive, even in a tropical climate is a polytunnel or sealed chamber to make sure that the leaves lose as little water as possible.

Training covered key aspects of making  cuttings, air-layering and grafting. For example, how to cut the stem to expose the maximum amount of cambium, the tissue from which new roots will grow? What part of a stem is best for preparing a cutting? How many leaves should remain on a cutting? And how to trim them if necessary. It then covered how to look after cuttings once established, including how to make a polytunnel from locally available materials. In total we worked with approximately 60 community members spread over a 300 km stretch of the Pando. At each community the needs and interests were slightly different, as were the facilities available and so we tried to tailor the training accordingly. We found considerable interest and enthusiasm amongst community members, which suggests that the limited capacity for tree propagation is not for lack of interest.

A member of the Remanzo community preparing cuttings of acerola, a fruit for which there is high demand but which propagates very poorly from seed with germination rates of ca 2%

Dissemination of first Forest Futures results to policy makers in Cobija, Bolivia

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The Honorable Luis Gatty Ribeiro Roca, Mayor of Cobija (capital of the Pando) promoting the publication of our agroforest manual

The Darwin Initiative Forest Futures project aims to mitigate threats to natural forest in the Bolivian Amazon by raising awareness of the value of these forests, supporting the diversification of non-timber forest products and adapting a soil-restoring agroforest technique to the Amazon. The project was launched in 2013 and this week we held a half-day conference in the capital of the Pando, Cobija. The aim of which was to disseminate our results and outputs to local decision makers who included the Vicegovernor of the Pando, Dra Paola Terrazas Justiniano, the Mayor of Cobija, Luis Gatty Ribeiro Roca, representatives of the Universidad Amazonica del Pando, the Autoridad Bosques y Tierra (Forest and Land Authority) several NGOs involved in rural development and journalists from five television stations and two radio stations. We had 73 people participate in the meeting which for us was a great success.

Cesar Aguilar Jordan, President of our partner NGO, Herencia, giving the opening address

 

 

 

The aim of this was to highlight the value of natural forest, both as a source of ecosystem services on which the Pando and the region depend, but also as a source of potential products which can either be harvested directly (non timber forest products) or cultivated in agroforest systems. The idea being that the perceived value of forest increases making unsustainable alternatives such as pasture for cattle or as sites for slash-and-burn seem less economical. Juan-Fernando Reyes from Herencia presented his vision for an integrated forest-based economy and future for the Pando, Bente Klitgaard outlined how the relationships between Kew, Herencia and our rural partners had developed and Alejandro Araujo Murakami presented a summary of the plant diversity of the Pando, ca 3,000 species and how this translated into stored carbon. I presented an overview of how Inga based agroforestry could help restore the soils of abandoned slash-and-burn sites to productivity and support sustainable agriculture in the region. In addition, with 73 participants at the conference it was a good opportunity to launch our Inga agroforest manual and promote the forthcoming book on economically promising Amazonian fruit tree species.

 

Cover of our forthcoming book on economically promising Amazonian fruit tree species

Producing an agroforest manual for rural people and NGOs

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First galley proof of our agroforest manual which is due for publication in September 2016

Since the start of our Forest Futures project I had been thinking about the best way to support the production of agroforests once we have left. We had committed to produce a manual but my initial thoughts were that this is a little old-fashioned and that an electronic publication formatted for mobile phones would be a good option. The reality, however, is that Bolivia has very poor internet access. Even in Cobija, the capital of the Pando, internet acesss is sporadic and poor. Once in the field it is only available at a few points along the main road . We therefore decided to opt for a printed manual, of the size that it will fit on a narrow shelf or somebody’s day pack and on high quality paper that will resist the high humidity of the tropics.

 

The next decision was how to best communicate to the people we working with. I believe that a majority text-based format would not be of great interest or very accessible for the communities we work with. I decided on an image-rich poster-like format. This was because posters remain a major communication tool by Government and NGOs in the region and so local people will be familiar with them, secondly I assumed that Governments and NGOs know what they are doing! Following this I had to think quite hard about content. Whilst the mechanics of establishing a plot are relatively straightforward to explain what has struck me working with rural people is that communicating the underlying principles of agroforestry as we practice it is very challenging.

Through our work with rural communities we realised that a lot of background knowledge needs to be communicated if people are to understand the point of agroforestry

This is in part because a lot of their knowledge on soils and and nutrient cycling is based on temperate systems, either in Europe or the Andes where soils are replenished by the action of frost or weathering of rock. Amazonian soils have been leached over millions of years and hold few nutrients for plants but this is not obvious looking at the lush dense forest growing on them. So not only do we need to explain that the soils are very poor but then explain how such rich forest grows on them. Similarly, it is less challenging for people living away from the Amazon to accept that cutting forest is not sustainable, but quite a different thing when it is your livelihood that depends on slash-and-burn and when you have always been surrounded by forest for as far as the eye can see and that this has been the case for as long as anyone can remember. The upshot of these considerations are a substantial introduction that attempts to explain all of the background and context whilst assuming little prior knowledge.

You can download the pdf version of the manual here. A printed version is available on request for those working in Latin America.

Exciting images of nettle flowers

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Partially dissected female flower of the subtropical shrub, Pouzolzia zeylanica showing the ovary exposed (left) and the elongated style and stigma (right) protected by tusk-like hairs. Image by Jia Dong, RBG Edinburgh

Working with Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh student Jia Dong and plant anatomist Louis Ronse De Craene has resulted in some exciting and thought-provoking images of nettle flowers. The aim of our collaboration is to understand how nettle flowers develop and in the process work out what parts they have in common and which they don’t. The samples used were from living collections at Edinburgh and RBG Kew, together with my own collections in alcohol made over several years. The results are some beautiful and very informative scanning electron micrographs which show that the part of the female flower which recieves pollen (stigma) and conducts it to the egg (style) is characterised by two classes of hairs, one comprising defensive tusk-like hairs (above) and the other receptive tubular like hairs (above & below).

Stigma hairs at the tip of the ovary of Pilea grandifolia, a succulent herb from Jamaica. Stigma hairs in the nettle family are characterised by their rounded obtuse tips and cylindrical shape. Image by Jia Dong, RBG Edinburgh.

Tubular hairs associated with the stigma are characteristic of all nettle flowers. They also appear very early in development. Combined this makes us think that they might have a role in pollination. Specifically in the reception of pollen. Being wind-pollinated, nettles don’t have a lot of control as to whose pollen reaches their female flowers and so there needs to be a way for them to control which pollen grains develop and fertilise the single egg. It seems likely that these hairs play a role and hopefully Jia will be able provide some more great images to test some hypotheses about this.

Female flower of Cecropia sp., a tcommon ropical tree from the Americas. In addition to stigma hairs you can see an apparent fold in the ovary. Image by Jia Dong, RBG Edinburgh.

 

An insight into tropical botany with Keynsham Primary school

Meeting Year 2, ‘Sapphire’ class at St Keyna’s primary school where I was asked several tricky questions

As part of my job I give talks to students or colleagues on aspects of my research and botany. Generally the less scientifically literate the audience the better and more insightful the questions. For this reason I was a little nervous and excited at meeting two classes at the St Keyna Primary School in Keynsham near Bath. I had been invited by my old friend Larissa Roberts who works at the school. After over 20 years working for a major museum I was also very honoured to be inaugurating their natural history museum! It might seem a poor use of resources for scientists to go and meet schoolchildren half way across the country and we struggled to find any resources to support for my visit. For me though it is very important. Botany is rarely taught in UK schools, there is no university degree in Botany in the UK anymore (imagine if that was the case for zoology or paleontology) and so the routes for recruiting young enthusiastic people from a variety of backgrounds into botany are somewhat limited. If visits such as mine inspire just one pupil to consider a career in botany then it would have a tremendous impact on our discipline.

Me, inaugurating the St Keyna Natural History Museum. A great collection of tarantula moults, birds nests and rocks! I should really have tucked my shirt in.

Some of the questions were quite a challenge. Mainly because although I should have I had not thought about them before. I was almost thrown by questions such as, ‘what is the rarest plant that you have collected?’, ‘what is the oldest plant that you have collected?’ and ‘how many new species have you discovered?’. On the basis of my answers I am not sure how well I would fair in a job interview. I was very pleasantly surprised to meet so many children with a spontaneous enthusiasm and interest in natural history and plants! I was also very impressed with how friendly and polite the children (and staff) were and of how well supported learning seemed to be at St Keyna’s. So all in all a very positive experience that I would gladly repeat.

Primer poda de un agroforestal basado en Inga para Amazonia

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Comunitarios de Motacus acabando la poda de los árboles de Inga de su parcela. Aunque ha sido listo para la poda desde octubre debido a El Niño y la cosecha de castaña han tenido retrasos

Dos años después de plantar nuestra primera parcela en Motacusal, la comunidad acaba de terminar la primera poda de los árboles. El denso follaje de los árboles de Pacay (Inga) se ha reducido a una capa vegetal y los tallos sacado para servir de leña, dejando aproximadamente 1/3 hectárea de terreno fértil para cultivos anuales como maíz, arroz o frijoles. Es la culminación de más de dos años de trabajo y testimonio del esfuerzo de nuestro equipo de campo, dirigido por Ingeniero Forestal, Rolman Velarde.

Una vez que se han cortado los tallos, las ramitas y las hojas se dejan por el suelo como abono verde, proporcionando materia orgánica que ayuda la fertlidad del suelo. Image: Rolman Velarde (Herencia)

Dejaremos la hojarasca pudrirse un mes antes de sembrar las primeras cosechas. Gestión de la parcela de Motacusal está siendo supervisado por los niños de la comunidad a través del programa ‘Bosque de los Niños‘ lo que significa que pueden elegir lo que van a sembrar. Esto es importante para la participación de los niños, y también para la comunidad, uniendo nuestras parcelas con su recurso más valioso y llevarlo a buen término es un poderoso símbolo. Los niños han experimentando con diversas semillas para plantar como parte de su currículo productivo y estoy entusiasta de saber lo que han sembrado en siguiente mes. Sin embargo quedan algunos desafíos, por ejemplo el tiempo anómala asociada con El Niño podría dañar las cosechas o al Inga.

Rolman Velarde explicando a las otras comunidades que participan cómo podar los árboles de Inga para poder cultivar los callejones. Imagen: Victor Soruco, Herencia.

Se utilizó la oportunidad de que sea la primera parcela que se podado para invitar a representantes de las otras comunidades participantes: Palacios, San José, Jerico y Monte Sinaí. Esto nos permitió formarlos en la poda,  también para ellos era una oportunidad para tener una idea de como sus parcelas agroforestales se verá en más o menos un año.

First Inga agroforest plot in Amazon pollarded

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Motacusal community members finishing the pollarding of their plot. Although ready to pollard since October there have been delays due to El Niño and the Brazil Nut harvest

Two years after planting our first plot at Motacusal, the community has just completed the first pollarding. The dense canopy of Inga trees has been reduced to a green mulch and the main stems taken away to be stored for fuel wood leaving about 1/3 ha of fertile ground for growing annual crops such as maize, rice or beans. The pollarding is the culmination of over two years work and testimony to the skills and hard work of our field team, lead by Forest Engineer, Rolman Velarde. We will leave the mulch to rot down a little and in a month the first crops will be sown.

Once the main stems have been cut, the smaller branches, twigs and leaves are left in the plot as mulch, providing much needed organic matter for the soil. Image: Rolman Velarde (Herencia)

Management of the Motacusal plot is being overseen by the communitie’s children through the ‘Bosque de los Ninos‘ programme which means that they get to choose what will be sown. This is not just important for the engagement of children but also for the community as a whole, linking our demonstration / trial plots with their most valued resource and bringing it to fruition is a powerful symbol. The children have been experimenting with growing various seeds for planting as part of the ‘productive’ part of their school curriculum and I am keen to see what has been planted in a month’s time. There stil remain some challenges though. The anomalous weather associated with El Niño could lead to the crops failing or to the pollarded Inga not recovering as planned.

Rolman Velarde explaining to the other participating communities how to pollard Inga trees for alley cropping. Image: Victor Soruco, Herencia.

We used the opportunity of this being the first plot to be pollarded to invite representatives from the other particpating communities: Palacios, San José, Jerico and Monte Sinai. This enabled us to train them in pollarding but also for them to get an idea as to what their agroforest plots will look like in a year or so.

Cuando podar los árboles en sistemas agroforestales

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Rolman Velarde, Terry Pennington y Jaime Leon revisando nuestro sitio en Motacusal por octubre 2015. Este sitio ha sido listo para podar desde julio.

Desde julio los árboles de Inga (pacay) en nuestra primera parcela que plantamos al finales de febrero 2014 son bastante grande para podar. Pero no los hemos podado porque las condiciones no son buenos para hacerlo. Como explicó Dr. Terry Pennington, experto sistemas agroforestales con Inga,  no debe podar árboles durante la estación seca y el mejor momento para hacerlo es un par de semanas en la temporada de lluvias. La razón de esto es que cuando se quita todas las hojas y las principales ramas de un árbol, la pérdida por encima del suelo se refleja por debajo del suelo. Es decir que cuando podas un parte de las raíces mueren lo que va disminuir la capacidad del árbol a conseguir agua . Durante la estación seca, hay poca agua en el suelo y si  ha podado el árbol se queda sin bastante raíces para sobrevivir.

El experto en Inga Terry Pennington revisando la parcela de Motacusal y avisando sobre como y cuando hacer la poda

Por la Amazonia la estación seca  empieza por abril / mayo y termina por octubre / noviembre. Este año ha sido muy seco por el fenómeno de El Niño entonces hemos tenido que adelantar de podar nuestros arboles. Después de podar necesitas dos meses de lluvia. Ya estamos por febrero entonces es possible que no va alcanzar el tiempo para podar antes de la llegada de la estación seca otra vez. 

Los arboles de Inga por nuestro sitio de Palacios. Todavía están de  tamaño para podar y el sitio se inunda por febrero

Por una otra parcela, Palacio, también es importante seleccionar un buen tiempo para podar. La razón es que este sitio se inunda por un par de semanas cada febrero. Entonces tenemos que asegurar que los arboles tienen el tiempo para brotar o el menos que se podan arriba del nivel del agua.  Estamos descubriendo que puede se algo complicado ubicar un buen tiempo para podar!

Neotropical high elevation oak forests

Oak forest at the foot of the Cerros Tararia in Costa Rica at 2,700 m elevation. These are large trees growing to 40 m in height and heavily festooned in bromeliads and liverworts.

I first came these majestic and mysterious forests in 2003 whilst collecting on the summit of Cerro Fabrega in Panama. We had hiked through montane tropical forest and cloud forest and suddenly we came into a forest consisting almost only of massive oak trees, covered in dark maroon liverworts and bright red bromeliads. It was a magical and unexpected experience. I had no idea that there were oak forests in the wet tropics and whilst I had seen small oak trees growing in semideciduous forests in Belize and El Salvador they could not be said to constitute a forest. Later on subsequent expeditions we came across these forests at between 1,900 and 3,100 m in Costa Rica and Panama, always characterised by tall trees festooned with epiphytes and very quiet. Indeed an oak forested portion of the La Amistad World Heritage site is known as the ‘Valley of Silence’.

View of the forest understory in the ‘Valle de Silencio’ at an elevation of 2,800 botanists providing a sense of scale.

What surprised me about these forests was their stature growing at such high altitudes, well above the stunted and gnarled cloud forests below them. Secondly, they have a rich diversity of plants associated with them, we documented over 500 species. Thirdly, in Latin America, they are restricted to mountains in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. They are also relatively unknown, both amongst botanists, ecologists and conservationists. Having done some more work analysing the patterns of species in these forests with Nadia Bystriakova and discussions with Dutch ecologist Maarten Kappelle we are planning a research programme on these high elevation oak forests. One which will seek to document and establish their importance as a source of plant diversity, both for conservation and science but also to evaluate the threats they experience across their range.

Schultesianthus crosbyanus, an unusual epiphyte in the tomatoe family with near black trumpet shaped flowers found in high elevation oak forest

Bolivian Amazon at a crossroads: oil, gold and paved roads

Lush swamp forest one of several forest fomations in the Pando, one of the areas of highest primate diversity in the World

I first went to the Pando in the Bolivian Amazon in 1988 as a young undergraduate. Returning in 2013 as a middle-aged botanist it was a pleasant surprise to find that although the capital Cobija had grown a lot much of the forest remained and that sustainable Brazil nut harvesting remained the major source of income for rural communities. It also remained one of the forests with the highest diversity of primates in the World. A single locality having up to thirteen species of monkey! That all looks about to change though as a triple whammy of semi-legal gold-mining, oil exploration and road building took off in 2015 and which by 2018 will have completely transformed the infrastructure, economy and likely the social fabric of one of the least deforested parts of the Amazon.

Road building between Puerto Rico and El Sena is well underway, a two-lane dirt track being transformed into a four-lane paved highway by a Costa Rican company

Asphalt roads are clearly of benefit to Amazonian communities, providing improved access to healthcare, education and markets and assist with the seasonal Brazil nut harvest. Roads also, however push back the frontiers of the forest and facilitate currently unsustainable agriculture, such as slash-and-burn, cattle-ranching or intensive soya / oil-palm production. Finding a balance between the opportunities and risks posed by asphalt roads is very difficult and rarely achieved. Oil extraction and transportation will also have an impact, changing the economy of the Pando and possibly replacing natural forest with its Brazil Nut and rubber trees as a major souce of employment and incomes. It also of course brings with it the risks of any large mining operations.

The port town of El Sena, now neighbour to several gold dredging barges (to the right of the image) and associated ‘industries’

The rapid growth of semi-legal artesanal gold mining in the Pando could have a far greater impact. The mercury used to separate gold from the river sediment has profound health risks for those mining but also for the whole ecosystem downstream, and for decades to come. Artesanal gold mining also attracts people desperate for money, from all over South America, together with many other strands of the black economy leading to social and political instability.