Mark Plotkin - Bio-Cultural Conservation of the Amazon
In this episode, Joe speaks with Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., author of The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know, and President and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT).
Plotkin talks about studying under Richard Evans Schultes (\u201cthe father of ethnobotany\u201d), biocultural conservation (the main point of the ACT), Covid-19 and the possibilities for cures in the Amazon, how ayahuasca news can always be viewed as both good and bad, how indigenous people often know much more about their environment and plant medicines than we realize, and how not all ayahuasca is created equal.
They mostly talk about the purpose of the ACT- using ethnographic mapping to help indigenous people take control of and protect their own land from their government and mining or logging interests, all while trying to bring a focus on respecting and protecting the environment, culture, and traditions encompassing the Amazon and its many people.
\u201cThe race is on. Protect the forests, protect the shamans, protect the frogs, protect the plants, protect the fungi, and let\u2019s learn what these people know before that knowledge disappears because the knowledge is disappearing much faster than the forest itself.\u201d
Resources:- www.markplotkin.com
- www.amazonteam.org
- www.psychedelicexperience.net (essentially a Yelp! for the psychedelic world)
On the ACT: \u201cWhen we set up the Amazon Conservation team about 25 years ago, the idea was that you had groups like the World Wildlife Fund (where I had been working) that was focused on protecting rainforests, and you had groups like Cultural Survival that was focused on protecting indigenous culture, but they really didn\u2019t talk to each other. And so we wanted to help create a discipline now known as Biocultural Conservation because those of us who work with indigenous cultures (whether it\u2019s in the far north of Canada or it\u2019s in the Amazon) know that there is an inextricable link between traditional shamanic cultures and their environment. And nobody was addressing that.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s a great saying\u2026 that the rainforest holds answers to questions we haven\u2019t even asked. So who knows if the answer to Covid-19 or SARs or the next virus which is coming at some point is in the Amazon, and the answer is- nobody knows, and nobody\u2019s really looking for it. So why not protect this treasure, steward it better, look for these answers, and keep the earth a rich and wonderful place?\u201d
\u201cThe medical office of the future, if we get it right, is going to have a physician... a nutritionist... a pet therapist... a music therapist... a dietitian... a shaman... a massage therapist. Because there\u2019s no one person and one way that\u2019s going to embody all aspects of healing at the same time.\u201d
\u201cWe all go to the grocery [store and ask]: \u2018I want to buy organic stuff.\u2019 How come nobody ever asks where the ayahuasca comes from? Is it harvested sustainably? Was it grown organically? You know how many times I\u2019ve been asked that question? Never. If we\u2019re having raised consciousness, why the hell aren\u2019t we asking these questions?
So my challenge to all of our like-minded colleagues is: Let\u2019s make sure we\u2019re getting this from a sustainable source. Let\u2019s make sure it\u2019s being replanted when it\u2019s harvested. Let\u2019s make sure it\u2019s benefiting tribal communities or peasant communities that are respectful of nature and shamanic processes and things like that because I don\u2019t understand why anybody would go to the grocery store and want to get organic grapes but will buy ayahuasca off the internet without knowing where it came from.\u201d
\u201cThe shamans often say everything is connected, which sounds sort of trite- this \u201cbutterfly effect.\u201d But here\u2019s proof of that. This whole terrible pandemic is due to our lack of respect for nature.\u201d
\u201cIt\u2019s not nice to screw mother nature either, because, you know, mother nature always wins. And thinking that we can get away with this and make a few bucks or eat a few weird dishes and not pay the ultimate price is foolish\u2026 It\u2019s us [who are] following our nests... abusing indigenous cultures... abusing forests\u2026 and mother nature is ultimately going to have her revenge.\u201d
About Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D.
Dr. Mark Plotkin is a renowned ethnobotanist who has studied traditional indigenous plant use with elder shamans (traditional healers) of Central and South America for much of the past 30 years. As an ethnobotanist\u2014a scientist who studies how, and why, societies have come to use plants for different purposes\u2014Dr. Plotkin carried out the majority of his research with the Trio Indians of southern Suriname, a small rainforest country in northeastern South America, but has also worked with elder shamans from Mexico to Brazil. Dr. Plotkin has a long history of work with other organizations to promote conservation and awareness of our natural world, having served as Research Associate in Ethnobotanical Conservation at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University; Director of Plant Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund; Vice President of Conservation International; and Research Associate at the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Plotkin is now President and Board member of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit organization he co-founded with his fellow conservationist and wife, Liliana Madrigal in 1996, now enjoying over 20 years of successes dedicated to protecting the biological and cultural diversity of the Amazon. ACT has been a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Roll of Honour since 2002, and was recognized as using \u201cBest Practices Using Indigenous Knowledge\u201d by UNESCO, the United Nation\u2019s cultural organization.
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