There are no Varmints in the Jungle

How one can learn about the Forestry from the Bribri - Indians

A graveled road leads along the Sixaola river to the Bambu village. We enjoy the view to the densely forested Talamanca mountains that go far beyond the near border to Panama. The small village offers visitors a simple but spacious accommodation, built from wood and palm leaves, to stay overnight and taste the native cooking. There are tours by foot or boot to waterfalls, traditional sites and, above all, into the forests. Almost the entire Bribri area consists of jungle and they call it their green gold. But plantation cultivation is partly operated also. More than hundred years ago, ...

 

... US companies claimed large parts of the Bribri territories and planted bananas. For various reasons, the companies stopped their activities and therefore the original forest is increasingly prevailing. Today, the Bribris find the way back to the roots of their agriculture.

Sitting in a dugout we cross over the broad stream of the Sixaola. On the opposite bank, we’re immediately swallowed by the jungle. Demetrio, a Bribri Indian, takes us on a small trail up the steep slope to his Finca.

Huge Ceiba trees alternates with palm trees and other low plants. We’re quickly surrounded by numerous cacao trees and in between there are banana plants. Now we’re right in the middle of what  is professionally called “successful agroforestry”. Trees are cut if necessary, but then they were left lying at the bottom. Because the lignin is a really important energy store for other plants. Most of the other plants are not cut also, but serve the others to grow. Here coexistence rules of up to forty various products rules instead of competition. Demetrio harvests these products little by little. Last week he had a large number of pumpkins. Yucca is soon ripe and in a few months he can harvest pineapple and, next year, probably the first lemons. That all grows on the same plot of land, in the middle of the forest and without additional fertilization. This soil management doesn’t leach the soil, so that it can be continued for an unlimited time. There are forest areas where the Bribris have used this type of sustainable farming for more than a hundred years. “We don’t have to teach the Bribris anything because their relationship to nature is much closer than ours. They know exactly how to handle their soil without damaging it”, says Winfried Steiner, a German forest engineer who supports the Bribris and farmers developing this system. Valuable experience also was gained through the exchange of experience with Brazil and Bolivia.

In seminars the advantage of this method over the temptations of making a fast buck on plantations with single-crop farming is explained to the farmers. It is essential that each farmer can produce enough foodstuffs for him and his family from the outset. In the second step he can sell the surplus products. As soon as one had enough it is easier to negotiate. This is how we let the delicacies of the jungle persuade us. Palm hearts are sliced directly in front of us and tasted. Additionally fresh plantains are roasted over the log fire. Freshly-pressed orange juice extinguishes our thirst. It is a feast, and that happens in the middle of the jungle – by the Bribris there’s still pure nature. What does an Indian tell us at farewell: “There’s just one sustainability, in particular the sustainability of the earth. When I leave the earth someday, then it has to be like I’ve found it, or better.”CRS

More Information in Costa Rica Spirits Magazine ed. 4 , 2010, page 12 - 17