Yakumamay is an innovative Amazonian conservation project based near the city of Iquitos in the Loreto region of Peru. Founded in 1996 Yakumamay has pioneered community led conservation of forest resources and the development of Live Pharmacies.
These plant categories are, in many ways, arbitrary due to overlaps between them and different perceptions by local plant experts (see notes on plant classification based on colour, size, form and attributed gender of plants*)
Taxonomists acknowledge that distinctions between herbaceous plants, subshrubs, and shrubs and trees are only sometimes clear. Some small trees do not have one clear woody stem, which is the main differentiating feature between trees and shrubs. Some plants are not annuals or perennials, as their life cycles can be variable.
While the category “climber” applies to all climbing plants, here we follow the Amazonian use of the term “vine” (soga) to refer to climbing stems, lianas or runners. Some plants grow as low shrubs when support is unavailable but as vines with tendrils or clinging roots when they have support; they do not qualify as “sogas”. Some vines growing as lianas from or to treetops may take over their tree hosts.
Kichwa Amazonians describe tubers, bulbs, corms, and rhizomes as “papa” (the word for potato). For this reason, we use the general “geophyte” category. In the Yakumamay survey, we stumbled on the use of plant categories, but invariably, Gilber offered additional information about plants’ growth habits, lifecycle, and reproduction to explain his perception.
The Live Map does not account for the elaborate differentiation of tree barks, their uses, and their relationship with the wood at the tree’s heart (shungu in Quechua). The main distinction for medicinal use is between the hard outer bark and the softer inner bark, which is scraped off. Tree roots’ bark is also differentiated from sectioned roots for medicinal purposes. The category “exudates” includes all fluids or secretions emitted through different plant parts locally and scientifically classified into resins, sap, latex or gums based on physio-chemical characteristics. While in some cases, the leaves or flowers of herbaceous plants are carefully picked without stems, more commonly, whole plants are used. Frequently, more than one part of a plant is used medicinally because active compounds are distributed through its various parts, but one of these parts is perceived as the most active.
Most botanical and some ethnobotanical research ignore Amazonian local perceptions of plants used in shamanic medicine. This website reflects a primary local distinction between “plants with spirit owners”, i.e. “plant teachers”, which require expertise, and plants without spirit owners used in general curing. Shamans (chamanes) in the Iquitos area usually specialise in using a few plants whose associated spirits they are familiar with. However, they can learn about and experiment with many other plants that they use to relieve sickness. Plants with spirit owners are psychoactive in their majority, and some are highly toxic. Traditionally, healers who prepare and administer them follow specific ritual behaviours for their cultivation -or wild harvesting- their propagation and care.
Some plants used in general curing can also require expertise, mainly when toxic. Only “simple plants” can be safely used by all for treating common ailments in households, but there is also a hierarchy of knowledge regarding their use, as in the case of midwives or bonesetters. “Medicinal foods” refer to the fruit or other parts of plants grown or harvested mainly as human food but known to have medicinal value, like cacao or guava.
The Reserve is easily accessed from the Iquitos-Nauta highway. The entrance to the reserve is located at Km 47, approximately one hour’s journey by car from Iquitos. There is a regular minibus service to Nauta which leaves from the corner of Prospero and Galvez streets in Iquitos. Alternatively you can take a taxi. We ask visitors to contact our Iquitos office before setting off for the reserve.