Colonos have had many questions about volunteering in the Amazon, the Andes and elsewhere. Discussion have unfolded here and some “conclusions” are presented here. We have also given many answers in private emails and brought many in contact with local communities. We are no longer able to do so and have handed over this task to | t r 3 3 |:
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Amazonia, Ayahuasca, brewing ayahuasca, Coca to Iquitos, corridors, Ecuador, http://tr33.org.uk, indigenous movements, indigenous rights, jatun sacha, Politics, rain forest, Rio Napo, voluntary work for free, Volunteering | Tagged: http://tr33.org.uk | 
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Posted by colono
As a curious reader of the blog stats is has once again been brought to my attention that there is widespread interest for information about the Jatun Sacha Foundation’s involvement in what is sometimes wrongly called biopiracy. There was never anything privately owned in the first place, as was the case when pirates liberated goods from the capitalist (slave) ships, hence bioprivateering is more to the point.
Colonos have previously posted about Jatun Sacha twice (1/2) and when looking in the stats today I noticed that quite a few people were clicking on the external link to see some proofs of the allegations. So I thought I’d save people some clicking and reading and excavate with a bit of gimping some of the relevant paragraphs of the Rafi Communique, September-October 1995 for all to easily see:
from:
Download PDF (2 MB) – about 348 seconds on a 56k modem
Cases from Thailand, Gabon, Ecuador, and Peru
RAFI is now called www.etcgroup.org
Leave a Comment » | Amazonia, Capitalism, colonisation, dark forces, deception, ecological justice, Ecuador, environmental destruction, Environmentalism, grass-roots, Green Politics, human rights violation, jatun sacha, Life, Politics | Tagged: biopiracy, bioprivateering, business as usual, Ecuador, etc group, jatun sacha foundation, pfizer, rafi, tena, theft | Permalink
Posted by colono
WordPress offers statistics about who visits your blog – and I just checked an incoming link which someone followed from that anti-social networking commerce site called Fakebook. The latest two postings in the Fakebook group featuring the link to the colonos blog suggest that our commentary on Jatun Sacha’s involvement with Big Pharma (which is no big secret, just google for a while and you will see for yourself) is “interesting read at any rate“, although, “I’m not saying you have to believe it but i recommend having a look” – good job that criticism is taken, sort of, seriously:
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So should you find yourself in the lucky position that you can make it to Ecuador (or Peru) for the purpose of volunteering, then do yourself and the world a favour: do your research well: who is who – and what do they (really!) do?
Can you not find the right kind of thing – that fits your social, cultural and political principles, then get in touch.
Colonos has worked and continues to work with people in the Napo-Ucayali corridor on a grassroots level. For instance we have sown the seeds for a network of community based botanical gardens in the region – and idea that emerged in the Napo (Ecuador) and Pucallpa (Peru) regions independently (thousands of kilometers apart) and the practitioners of which we are merely bringing together and helping them do what they want to do.
The work includes working with Kichwa and Shipibo people and offers great opportunities to get soil under your nails, doing research and analytical work (ecological, political, cultural etc.), talking to plants and animals, drinking ayahuasca and work with shamans and other traditional healers, such as midwives. Whatever tickles your fancy! The work is coordinated from England and by the “Grupo Sabio”, which meets regularly in Tena, Napo, Ecuador.
One of the people we work with used to work for Jatun Sacha (who consistently “forgot” to pay him) until he realised what was going on and what the Peace Corps, whose army of volunteers occupy large parts of the socalled developing world, has become (that is: a Pentagon outfit; see below for more) and what it always was: a forefront of capitalism and Euro-American developmentalism, culturally imposing itself through the manual labour of unwitting volunteers in good faith that they are making a difference for the better, not worse.
Make up your own mind – but do your home work!
More on Pentagon Peace Corps (..talk about an oxymoron..):
7 Comments | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, Capitalism, Ecuador, Globalisation, grass-roots, Green Politics, jatun sacha, Napo-Ucayali corridor, Politics, rain forest, Rio Napo, South America, voluntary work for free, Volunteering | Tagged: amazon, Ayahuasca, community based botanical gardens, Ecuador, grupo sabio, jatun sacha, napo, napo-ucayali, peace corps, ucayali, voluntary work for free, Volunteering, volunteering in Ecuador, volunteering in the amazon | Permalink
Posted by colono
Jatun Sacha is a lovely place. Comprising 2500 hectares of easily accessible primary rainforest, it is one of the last little paradises around Tena.
Or so it seems…
Promoting the conservation of ecosystems through technical training, scientific research, environmental education, natural resource management, and community development involving local peoples surely can’t be all that bad, even if it meant privatizing many square metres of ancestral indigenous territories. After all this was government policy in the 1970s anyway, and better the land goes to an eco- humanitarian project than some overweight cattle farmer. ¿No?
65 Comments | Amazonia, Anti-capitalism, bio-privateering, Capitalism, Collective Bio-Cultural Heritage, deception, Ecuador, Environmentalism, Green Politics, greenwash, Ishpingo, jatun sacha, Politics, rain forest, South America, Volunteering | Permalink
Posted by colona
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