INDIGENOUS AGROFORESTRY in the PERUVIAN AMAZON: BORA INDIAN Managementr of SNIDDEN FALLOWS WILLIAM M
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INDIGENOUS AGROFORESTRY IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON: BORA INDIAN MANAGEMENTr OF SNIDDEN FALLOWS WILLIAM M. DENEVAN, JOIN M. TREACY, JANIS B. ALCORN CHRISTINE JULIE DENSLOW PADOCH, and SALVADOR FLORES PAITAN n recent years students nagement of tropical forest of Amazonia resurces: 1. farmers, but have ema- the diverse, multistoried rarely among colonist phasized swidden (shift- farmers. that some of ing cultivation However, it has received little at. the most successful food field) which protects the tention; producing adap- soil and allows brief mentions include: Denevan tations to the rain forest for habitat recovery (1971: habitat have under long fallow 508-509) for the Campa in been those of the (e.g., Conklin, 1957; eastern indigenous tribes, and Harris, Peru; Pose', 1982; 1983: 244. that consequently 1971); 2. the house g:arden, or we have much to learn dooryard 245) for the Kayap6 in central from these garden, also diverse and mul- Brazil, "ecosystem" people. "Refined Basso (1973: 34-35) for the Kalapalo over tistoried, but with :) large complement in millennia, Amazon Indian agri- of central Brazil; Eden (1980) culture tree crops ind with soil additives for the preserves the soils and from Andoke and Witoto the househoid retise, ash, and in the Colombian ecosystem ... If manure (e.g., Amazon; Smole the knowledge of in- Covich and (1976: 152-156) and digenous peoples can Nic-tcrson, 1966); and 3. the for he integrated with planting, protection, Harris (1971: 4S7, 489) and To. modern technological know-how, and harvesting of rres Espinoza then a trail side and campsite (19 0) for the Shuar new path for ecologically vegetation ("no- in eastern sound develop- medic aQricullrc"' Ecuador. L')me observers have or "forest field,"), assumed that all tha is involved is a ment of the Amazon will have been involNin- wild. semi-domesticated and return to abandoned (Forfound" similar (Pose, statements 1982: 18; 19S3: 225), domesticated ,widdens to search for other tropical 1983: 241-243).plants (e.g., Pose\ 1982; for residual regions see, for example, A related type of plant cultivation, crops left from the former Nigh and Na- management but indications are that tions, 1980; is the manipulation and ac Clarke, 1977; Eckholm, utilization tual management occurs, including 1982: of swidden fallows, a form plant. 34-35; and Klec, 1980). In par- of ing and protection as well agroforestry involving a combination as utilization ticular, Indian cultivation is of of certain useful characteriz- annual crops, perennial wild plants that appear ed by multiple cropping tree crops, and at various and interaction natural forest stages of fallow succession. with natural vegetation. regrowth. Swidden-fallo- The purpose of this Attention mlanage- paper is to examine has been di- ment apparenly the swidden fallows rected to several forms is widesprL among of an Amazon of traditional ma- Amazon tribes native group, the Bora of and some local mestizo eastern Peru, with the objective of de- Wisconsin, William M. Denevan, Madison. His Ph. D. is from a cultural ecologist, is Professor the 'njhersitv of Cs!ifornia, Berkeley of Geography at the University and peasant agriculture in the in 1963. lie has carr;ed out of Amazon and the Anties in Peru, research on Indian Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Geograph, University of Wisconsin, Address: Department of Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 53706. John M. lie has ;rvious field experience Treacy is a doctoral student in in the Permian Andes geography at the University of Wisconsin, and in the Guayas Basin of Ecuador Madison. research in agricultural and is currently engaged in terracing in southern Peru. Janis of B. Alcorn, an etlinobotanist, received Texas, Austin. She has carried a Ph. D. in botany in 1982 out extensive field research on from the University Huasleca Indian plant use in Mexico. Christine Padoch received a Ph. D. in anthropology specialit from Columbia University h is land use, settlement, and demography, in 1978. 1hr and the particularly in South East Asia where Luin Daeh of East Kalimantan. She she has studied the Iban of Sarallak is currenily at the Instilutle of Economic Julie Denslow has a Bolany, New York Botanical ha, (ne l'I. I). in botany from the Unihersity Garden. field research on seconcla'.v successiun of Wisconsin, Madison. in ('olumhia and Costa Rica. She de la Amazonia Sid]-vador Flores Pait~n, Ingeniero Peruana in hluitos. le holds Agr6nomo, is Profesor de Suelos, Costa Rica, 1977. the degree of Magister Scientiae Ciencias Universidad Nacional Ile has been en-aged in research Agricolas y Forestales, Turrialhl, on soils, forestry, and agroforestrn in Iquitos and in 0'. rgion since 1972. !1o AnipilaCLI 346 378 0 -1844/84,'06-34-12 $ 03.00/0 NOV-DEC 1984, VOL. 9 NQ 6 )RIER'ELI1 fon tratine howk field, are grad l:, Noeri!"cr, but with the driest month Secondtry foreqt due to shifting ciii abandon>d This contrxts ,ith mot (August still having 133 millimeters. tivation since the Bora arriked there 50 studies of shifting cultivation whch focus Temperatures average around 26:C years ago. Hoever, high foret hecins on why 3 7 fields are abinlo;-ed, and which throughout tileyear (oINERN, 1976: ). at 20 minu'es walking distance from present a sharp distinction bctw cen the Brillo Nue,,o is situated beside ar. oxbow the village and extends north%%ard (s' field iden) and the abandoned field lake formed by the Yaguasyacu The across the Coloinb.t ilborder. (fallow). B For the ora there is no clear area is a hilly, dissected fluViei terrace Family fields are dis transition between swidden and fallow, interlaced with numerous seasonal pcrsed throughout the fore,,t siurround but rather a cont in uun, from a swidden streams. The soils are primarily deep itig the communal ,nloco (residence of dominated by cultivated plants to an old Lltisols (paleudults, tropohumults, and the vil ge tcraca or ceremonial head). fallow coisposed entirely of natural ve- tropudults). They itclt,c red and yelliw, Fields atre often closely clustered be getation. Thirty-five years of more rnav clay soils, red and brown sandy soils, cause fa rmrers find it convenient to Visit be required before the latter coadition and glc' soils (tropaquods) in depres- several on one trip. Most plots are ac prevails. Abandonment is not a moment sion:,;. -he Blora prefer to farm the clay in time but rather a process overAgrofoestryisc(Gent-h979..thetinm,. soils and red sandy soils cessiblemaloca; within others15 minutesarc acrosson footthe fronYa- Agroforestrguasyacu ly and are reached by dugout receiving considerable attention as a There were J53 fa- an d ar ad by ae. Both prinmary andseodr potentiailly stable and ecologically viable milies living in the settlement. All are , widdens. Primary Cdescendents of tribal groups brouight forest are cleared form of tropical forest land use (King to t ribalro ps brg forest for sidn.Pinr and Chandlerto sites are recognized as more the mpacu rom the Igaraparan- fertile, while secondary forest (fallow) adwski,1981;dles, 1979; H t 9; Caquet:i reion of Colombia follow ing doski, 1981; SaIlas, 1979; Flart, 19S0; Peru's loss of a border war with that isclol,er at hand and more easily flled. Spurgeon, 1980). One of the major re comimendations of the recent U.S. Na- country in 193y4. They wcre resetled abou t years of age. There is bo tioaal Research Council (1982: 4, 5, on land eventually granted to themi by anical evidence, however, of secondary 146) report on tropical development is they retain community tit. (hice fort over -1)years of age. (Presence that the agroforestly systems of itn- studv was undertaken at Brillo Nuev0, of buried and surface postsherds i digenous people should be studied and rither than with a community Iong dicates previots occupation of the arva ri-corded before such knowledge is lo,,t. thed i t ha commuse of at unknown trines by unknown Indiani Vve believe that certain f'ature; of- Bo - ~established in its habitat. becMise Otfaresfarmers. swidden-fallow management can be in- by project member Sarador Flores.) The Blora say that a cor|,o~ltedl into systematic models o( The lBra are gradually tropical agroforestry beini as:.iiiiat- nlinitnutIi of ten y.iears of fallowing is systems. Indeed, an ed into Peruvian society throu-h . needed bef'ore a plot canl be cut and examination of Bora land use indicates sionaries, commerce, and access to planted anew. Most swidde;,s, howe,,er, that "agroforestry" is new in name only Pebas, Iquitos, and Pucallpa. Bora appear to be prepared from fallows 20 to native groups in the Amazon. Under villagers speak Spanish, wear mariu- years of age or older. For the Bora, denser populations in the past (Denevan. factured clothing, and market handicraft one indicator of a fallow ready to be 1976), large areas of Amazon fore,,t items and lumber. Bora subsistence, felled and cropped is a lack of shrub may actually have been ,tages ofCpro- however, retairns nrany of its traditioril by growth near ground level. ductile swidden fallows. sl,:ole hio:ic elements, wtith a reliance on widn Most fields are cut conponents wcre largely selected and .igriculture. house gardens, fallow ma- and burnt'. during the months of least nianaged, a condition Nigh and Naoetis e i hing, and rain; howvever a field can be prepared (1980) call "intermediate disturbance", hunting, in the high forest. Previous ac- any time the weather permits. Field and which Gordon (i969: 69; 1982: 73- counts of the Peruvian and Colombian sizes range from a fourth of a hectare "78) in Panama calls an "orchard-garden- Bora include Whiffen ('915), ie- to one hectare. Axes and machetes are thicket" or -tree garden".