ACT UPDATE   May 25, 2004

Dear Friends,

Women's Gathering Follow-Up
As a follow-up to the Gathering of Women in Colombia, Carolina Amaya and other ACT-Colombia staff spent a week in the land surrounding the meeting house to complete the initial biological survey and inventory. ACT is currently working to acquire and protect an additional 37 acres of adjacent land, as a reserve and an area for the women to gather medicinal plants.

Indigenous Nutritional Security Partnership
ACT has agreed to work with McGill University's Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE) on a project whose ultimate goal is to provide evidence to protect indigenous food systems in a variety of areas in the world. ACT staff will work with the Ingano indigenous peoples of the Colombian Piedmont to assess the tribe's overall nutritional status, in order to increase awareness both within the community and in the world at large. This effort will significantly increase the global community's understanding of the food security and nutritional health issues confronting indigenous peoples, and will provide the previously lacking hard data to inform wide-ranging decisions in this arena.

Kajana Traditional Medicine Clinic
In Suriname, construction of the traditional medicine clinic at Kajana has begun. This clinic will follow the successful model of the Katamïimë clinic in Kwamalasamutu, featured as one of the Best Practices Using Indigenous Knowledge by UNESCO/NUFFIC.

Xingu Cultural Exchange
In March, Taita Luciano and Taita Patricio traveled from Colombia to the Xingu, at the invitation of the Waurá Indians. This is the first step in a cultural exchange between our indigenous partners in different country programs. This exchange of knowledge is key for our work in the Xingu, as it provides an opportunity to work with the Indians there to preserve and strengthen their traditional knowledge systems.

Strategic Planning
ACT staff just returned from a week-long planning meeting in Manaus, Brazil. The goal of the meeting was to evaluate the mission of ACT and to draft a five year plan for the entire organization. The gathering was extremely successful and we left with a renewed commitment to working in partnership with indigenous people in conserving biodiversity, health, and culture in tropical America. We reaffirmed our focus on ethnobiology, and working to strengthen traditional and indigenous systems of knowledge.