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Corrego-Seco - Protecting Cerrado Biodiversity through ethnobotanic research and craftwork development.

The aim of this project is to help preverse the biome called Cerrado (dry-tropical savanna, Brasil), through developing a better appreciation, awareness and valuing of  the richness of its resources.  Specifically the project will work with the indigenous (Terena) community of Corrego Seco to identify the plants of the Cerrado that have special economic and cultural value.  By improving the quality of traditional handcrafts, and the introduction of compatable handcrafts the people will begin to see their native forested areas as sources of wealth and income, only in  their intact form

Project Objectives            

Local pLocal practices and activities within the dominant culture idicate that Cerrado is only considered as a problem landscape that needs to be cut, burnt and replaced with beef farming or soya moncultures.  Unfortunately the indigenous communities, especially through older government agricultural programs have adopted this destructive mentality. As a result many indigenous communities are rapidly clearing their local forests.  Once well-known and usefull native species (for example medicinal plants) are becoming rare and at times, no longer exist, in the local area. As a small community, Corrego Seco (Terena people) has not been so quick to destroy its resources, and yet already the effects are obvious.  In a recent community meetings, many of the older people complained that the river was drying up, was no longer drinkable and some of the plants once common are disappearing.

The Terena culture is rich in its use of plants, especially for medicines, construction materials and handicraft materials. However these activities were traditionally purely extractive. The result is that many of these plants are now difficult to find in the wild and as a result the craft and medicinal traditions of the Terena are dying.

The objectives of this program are to identify the plants traditionally important to the Terena people, to rescue and where necessary recreate the traditional medicinal and handicraft uses of the Terena, to develop a nursery to propogate the identified plants and to start replanting these plants both within the village area itself and in the broader forested areas surrounding the village.

The Team

            Coordinator – Ivone Riquelme

Technical Assistant – Skye

Biologist – Roberta Moriconi Schardong – a younger Brasilian (29) recently qualified with a masters degree in Biology from the federal university. Her specialty is in the area of medicinal and therapuetic plants of the Cerrado.

Artist – Adilson Schaeffer – Brasilian,35 years old – locally renowned plastic artist with years of experience working with indigenous communities in the area of the amazons

     Outputs

            Ethnobotanic Survey – within the first month of the project a study of plants used tradionally by the Terena people will be udertaken, in conjunction with the community itself.  This activity will be based in modern participataory processes that  enable the villagers to contribute and fully understand the whole process.  This study will also require direct bibliographic research as well.  The direct outcome will be an extensive list and physical mapping of the ethnobotanical plants of their immediate areas. The list will detail full botanical information as well as details of their ethnobotanic applications and history. This publication will be of great value to ethnobotanists in particular, and anyone interested in studying, or preserving the Cerrado biome.

 Propogation of  the Plants Identified as Being Especially Useful – the aim is to redress the loss of valuable parts of the Cerrado biome. This loss not only has economic implications for the local village, but also obvious implications in the loss of biodiversity within the local forested areas.  To acheive this activity a number of sub-activities will be undertaken

·  Construction of a small nursery  using locally available materials

·  Collection of seeds of the choosen species, and the creation of a seedbank.

·  A series of short courses teaching basic propogation techniques and nursery oparations.

·  The actual propogation of the choosen species.

 Courses in Local Handicrafts – a series of courses will be offered in which tradional handicraft skills are taught.  Where possible the teachers themselves will be indigenous people from other villages within the region.  If necessary non-indigenous artists will be employeed to recreate the skills totally lost. In addition to the courses themselves and the resulting craft items, the main outcome will be a core of people interested in further developing their skills, with the aim of developing a viable craft industry.

 Quality Improvement – in conjunction with people from SEMBRAI, Adilson Schaeffer  (artsist)  will run a series of short courses to attune the quality of production from the craft group of the village. Emphasis will be on quality control, development of simple technology and useful tools, creation of a communal brandname under  which goods of sufficient quality can be sold. The outcomes here are better quality products, a brandname and most importantly a self-monitoring system of quality control. SEMBRAI already have the sales outlet network established, for quality products.

Replanting the Cerrado – as a committment to their own on-going future, the craft group will undertake various plantings of the species they are now using. This will result in them planting many species close to their homes or throughout their agricultural areas (while not a focus of this project, these plantings will have a positive impact on the soil degradation problems faced by many farmers in this vellage). In addition this group will organise working bees, in which the larger species chosen will be replanted into its original wild habitat. The members of the group will undertake to maintain and care for these plantings and to continue the process in the future – they now have an economic incentive to preserve and restore the native forest.

Overall , the active part of the project will continue over a time period of nine to twelve months. Depending on when funding is available, the project may need to be condensed or extended in time to accomodate seasonal variations.  The Cerrado is powerfully influenced by a definite wet and dry season, which means that the final stage of the project (tree planting) must take place at the start of the wet season if the plants are to survive. The timing must be for planting in september or october at the latest. Other  aspects of the project are not so seasonally dependant, but will certainly be completed within a year.

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