Summer in the Amazon Rainforest

I am wrapping up this series detailing what each teaching author did over the past summer, each experience beautiful and meaningful in its own way. 

Because I was awarded a very special fellowship in honor of the memory of a young environmental scientist, activist and educator, Courtney R. Wilson, I attended a transformative, education professional development in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest this past summer.

For 10 days, I was immersed and engaged with other educators from across the U.S., deep in the primary Amazon Rainforest through the Morpho Institute’s Educator Academy, to understand how teachers can play a role in the conservation of the Amazon Rainforest.

 

I was especially drawn to this profound experience because of my work with young students around climate change.  Although I had been to the Amazon in 1999, I had traveled by myself and experienced the biodiversity as a tourist.  I found it to be the most magical place on Earth. During the few days of my tour in 1999, I saw tropical birds, caiman, sloths, monkeys, and all the other rainforest animals and insects one would expect to encounter.  I was enchanted and I knew I would return.

The Amazon Rainforest is known as “the lungs of the Earth.”  As a kindergarten teacher, kidlit author, and mother, I was pressed to return given the escalation of climate change.  I recognize that am a gatekeeper and that I stand on the precipice to lead young people into understanding and action around the conservation of this critical ecosystem.  I cannot save the world.  I am long past the arrogance of this belief, but I can work in my own little corner to add to the efforts. Sometimes it is daunting at best, and I am overcome by the futility of it all.  But then I am reminded of the necessity by the wide-eyed 4- and 5-year-olds that I teach and write for.

I was compelled to participate in the Morpho Institute’s Educator Academy to deepen my knowledge of the land, the river, and the animals/insects/birds/fish, the biodiversity.  What I did not expect to connect with was the humanity.  Because of the relationships that the Morpho Institute has developed with the local indigenous communities, I was able to meet and witness the conservation efforts of these indigenous communities who live in the Amazon Rainforest.  

We spent time with the Sucusari Maijuna indigenous community, who live on the Sucusari River a tributary off the Amazon.  This is my understanding of their incredible struggle for conservation of the area based on my observations, a clarifying interview with Christa Dillabaugh, executive director of the Morpho Institute Educator Academy, and the article cited at the end of this post.

The Sucusari indigenous Maijuna community is relatively accessible because of its proximity to the river so they were most affected by loggers and poachers.  Their river and land were devastated by bad practices of the loggers and poachers, which poisoned the fish and decimated the animal populations, drastically reducing the ability of the Maijuna to feed their own families. 

Through organizing efforts that spanned over time, they were able to consolidate their power with the other three Maijuna Communities located in other areas of the Peruvian Amazon to petition the government to designate their land as a regional conservation area making them the guardians of this area.  I believe it was not fully realized until they partnered with NGOs (Non-governmental Agencies) and the Kichwa indigenous communities.  Ultimately, the Mijuana/Kichwas Regional Conservation area was formed, 391,039 hectors (275,000 hectors of primary rainforest.)  This designation legally protects their homeland.

One of the most moving aspects of this story for me is the dedication to conservation efforts of the land undertaken by the Sucusari community, revising their own practices.  In the past they had cut down trees to harvest honey and through their recognition of the damage this causes, they have adopted new ways.  Instead of cutting down the trees for honey they now cultivate native stingless bees in bee boxes on their land.  Instead of cutting down Palm trees to harvest the fronds and fruit, they have developed ways to leave the trees standing while harvesting the fronds to create palm rope.  We witnessed their eco-friendly fishing and have heard and seen on a Trap Camera the recovery of big game in the area that were previously thought to be gone. The practices of this community have led to the recovery of the rainforest in their area.  

Tragically, they are now in the midst of a fight to prevent the government from putting a 130-kilometer road in with a 10-kilometer-wide development corridor.  This possible project, that will bisect the conservation area, threatens to destroy the biodiversity, fracturing the habitats, and destroying cultural and ancestral lands important to the Maijuna. 

This possible road opens up the interior of the primary rainforest to logging and poaching. (the recent film We Are Guardians details similar destruction in Brazil and the indigenous communities who are fighting back) This struggle is also not much different than the recent news that our North American entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is being opened up with the same struggle occurring, especially against the possibility of a road going through much like the struggle of the Maijuna. I am heartened to see the struggle.  I am awakened to the organizing efforts of the indigenous communities most directly connected to the eco-system which they are positioned to protect.

When I returned folks asked me what the most interesting thing I had experienced in the Rainforest was…to my own surprise, I answered, “the people.”  I experienced the indigenous communities of the Amazon and their hard work to help the Amazon recover and I was filled with awe. I returned hopeful.

By Zeena M. Pliska

Author of Hello, Little One: A Monarch Butterfly Story

                 Egyptian Lullaby

                 Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies Say Thank You? (But Why?)

                 Chicken Soup for the Soul for Babies A Gift For Me? (I Want It!)

For More Information About the Morpho Institute

Morpho Institute, Amazon Conservation - Morpho Institute

For More Information About the Educator Academy and Scholarships (due Nov. 15th)

Professional Development - Morpho Institute

For More Information About the Maijuna Indigenous Community

The Maijuna: Fighting for Survival in the Peruvian Amazon


Trautmann, Nancy, and Michael Gilmore. “The Maijuna: Fighting for Survival in the Peruvian Amazon.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Autumn 2019), no. 46. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/8956 . This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . 2019 Nancy Trautmann and Michael Gilmore This refers only to the text and does not include any image rights. Please click on an image to view its individual rights status. ISSN 2199-3408 Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia Source URL: http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/895