Meet Dr. Sara Bennett

A note from ACT President, Dr. Mark Plotkin: I first met Sara Bennett over 30 years ago when she appeared my office at the Harvard Botanical Museum. “I’m headed for the Colombian Amazon,” she began 


...Still there, doing that.

The lower Apaporis River, where she rucked up for fifteen years, had been included in the list of “preselected areas” for eventual inclusion into the Colombian National Park system. There were hardly any humans there at the time. A good place to do ecosystem science, and to live (not necessarily in that order). With a National Geographic Society grant she dug in to find out about the seasonal rhythms of the forest; the orphaned animals were never part of a plan. That just happened. So did the drawing and the musings. Sara has since been an exotic element in the fauna of Amacayacu National Park (on the Colombian stretch of the Amazon River) for almost ten years, and a supporting actor/loose-cannon-on-deck in an evolving dynamic with the acculturated indigenous communities who share jurisdiction for much of the area’s management. This is a unique vantage point for perceiving, sharing, and (ojalá, which translates loosely as “maybe” [in a hopeful tone of voice]) bridging some of the gaps across cultures and languages.

Her incredible experience, knowledge, wisdom and humility have led at least one colleague to call her the “Jane Goodall of the Amazon.” In this new blog, Sara shares her insights and experiences with us: about her primate family and friends (including humans and other animals, wild or otherwise), her observations, her opinions, and even her drawings. We are all privileged to have these off-the-wall reports from the heart of the Colombian Amazon.”

Letters from the Colombian Amazon, where some wild things still are. (Whatever do you do about it?)

By Dr. Sara Bennett

“You know you’ve been in the woods too long when …. It blows your mind to go to the Portland (Maine) grocery store, for starters and, in general, one’s “obviousnesses” don’t match up any more with anybody else’s. Results in Dangerous Questions (1). Sometimes it’s so crazy it gets hilarious … and laughing sometimes results in insights and always feels good. Sometimes it gets impossible. Grief, rage, boredom, and despair happen. And then, (this is a quote, I forget whose): “Things are only impossible until they’re not.”

This golb (amorphous, with potential) is a reality check. It’s brought to you by ACT (and especially Liliana Madrigal, whose knack for the strategic noodge or powdermilk biscuit makes her one of the benevolent forces of nature). The intention here: to respond thoughtfully to her invitation to express and look at what comes up for a New Englander long in the Colombian Upper Amazon and share what’s coming down.

Maikuchiga means “the monkeys’ story” in Tikuna (2). We’re a small, funky ngo that runs a rescue center for orphaned animals, mostly monkeys, in Amacayacu National Park (Colombia), as the most visible element of an overall program to design and implement human alternatives consistent with the long-term conservation functions of an important protected area. The park overlaps with acculturated indigenous communities eager to participate as intensely as possible in the cash economy. Some of these people are concerned about how to hang on to some cultural identity as well: for the Tikuna, hunting is important…and so are hair gel, a cell phone, a chainsaw...

Like, picture The Gods Must Be Crazy – played out on the banks of the Amazon, with less plot resolution.

Nobody seems to have the script.

___

[1] Dangerous Questions, recurring themes of:

• The right amount of “Stuff” – (how do you know?)
• Bounty, scarcity, enough (cf., you’ll never get enough of stuff you don’t need)
• Caring and sharing (remember kindergarten?) – of bounty, scarcity, stuff at different scales.
• “Stuff” and the aesthetics of living, social status, good design
• Complex systems, (common name = Horrible Messes). Individual behaviors and collective consequences. How do you know what you know? How do you save the planet by consuming less while buying more to save the economy?

[2] The Tikuna comprise the dominant of several indigenous ethnic groups in this area of the Amazon.

So, (riffing off Maurice Sendak): “Let the wild rumpus begin…”

___

Next installment: woolly walkabout.  Coming soon:

· Environmental education in the Amazon and what that should look like.
· Science in Amazonian conservation: the paradigms, the protagonists, and the protected areas
· Seasonal rhythms in lowland rainforest and climate change. More uncomfortable projections you’d just as soon not know about.

The current cast of main characters includes:

Critters – woollies, capuchins, flying monkey, squirrel monkeys, stinkpoo night monkey, reddish sea monkey (aka dusky titi), black-mantled tamarins, pygmy marmoset, the dawg…others will fall out of the sky.

Humans – Jhon, Leoncio, Aladino, Lucho, María, Manuel, Sara, the indigenous community of Mocagua, the Amacayacu park staff (including assorted students and volunteers), the profe’s ([pron. PROfays, affectionate slang for profesOR], teachers from local primary schools), the visitors to the park...

Maikuchiga happened because sometimes some problems represent solutions for other problems, and sometimes somebody perceives this. The problems:

1. Providing ethical and humane care for animals confiscated from illegal wildlife traffic.
2. Providing disincentives for the regional commercialization of fauna, especially by increasing the probability of law enforcement (i.e., confiscation of the animals).
3. Motivating the inhabitants of the indigenous communities that use the natural resources of a major national park to manage wildlife populations sustainably.
4. Developing high-quality experiences for ecotourists to the region, who are often disappointed when they don’t see animals.
5. Enriching local education with environmental activities not otherwise available in the normal curricula.
6. Restoring ecosystem integrity in an area where the large primates are locally extinct and where there is now a local norm no longer to hunt them.

___

The primary function of Maikuchiga is to care for confiscated or otherwise “accidented” animals (especially monkeys, but whatever shows up that doesn’t eat or get eaten by the residents of the moment) in the Colombian Amazon and, when appropriate, give these individuals the opportunity to re-integrate into wild populations. The area is both national park and indigenous reserve, distinctive because the local residents have decided no longer to hunt endangered species, with special emphasis on the large primates. This was a miracle, but not an accident, which resulted from a previous project focused on an endangered species of curassow that generalized to overall community natural resource management. Maikuchiga, the park and community members have developed an interpretive activity about monkey natural history and conservation that provides some significant “green” income and also generates indirect benefits by buying school supplies for all the kids in the community.