Northeast Amazon

The Program

• Shamans and Apprentices Program

The program works within the context of the Amazon Conservation Team’s active conservation program — the Shamans and Apprentices Program.  This program, conceived and developed by ACT President Mark Plotkin in partnership with the Indians and other local colleagues, prevents the disappearance of traditional knowledge by encouraging young apprentices to learn from the elder shamans and to preserve the knowledge of medicines from the Amazon rainforest. Plant collection trips by the shamans accompanied by the apprentices result in transmission of ancestral forest knowledge to younger generations as well as the renewal of forest as a repository of healing and place for learning.

• Traditional Medicine Clinics

Traditional medicine clinics, fully operated and directed by elder tribal shamans, are established in conjunction with Medische Zending health care providers at the village health outpost. The clinic, built adjacent to the health outpost, provides sufficient space for several healers to practice medicine. In addition, each clinic provides facility for apprentices to directly observe the shamans actively practicing their medicine with opportunities for graduated clinical responsibility, enabling the transmission and preservation of clinical skills and rituals through generations.  A safe and sustainable practice, the clinics utilize solar-powered refrigerators to preserve fresh medicinal plant preparations and protect against over-collection of forest species.

• Indigenous Health Care Workshops

Shamans and Medische Zending health workers in conjunction with ACT and Medische Zending physicians lead workshops to educate and raise awareness among primary care practitioners about traditional health practices, important medicinal plants, and indigenous concepts of health and illness.  In addition, the workshops educate traditional healers about basic primary care healthcare issues and preventive health practices.

• Ethnomedicine Research Initiative

Apprentices are trained to complete record forms that document the incidence of conditions and treatments utilized for each patient at the traditional medical clinics. In addition to allowing for the development of informed practices on the integration of traditional and Western medical practices, retrospective analysis of clinic records permits the first objective and quantitative analysis undertaken of patterns of disease treatment and medicinal plant utilization by Amazonian tribal healers.  Highly accurate, culturally appropriate and precise translations of indigenous disease concepts and medico-anatomical terminology are articulated.

ACT does not engage in bioprospecting.