5 Traditional use of forest resources

Forest resources are utilized both for subsistence and for access to markets in Iquitos. Certain products are collected primarily from purmas, others from monte alto; many products are found in both land types. Because purmas are located closer to chacras and to village households, the intensity of forest product collection is greater there than it is in monte alto. Additionally, varying degrees of cultivation of useful species occur in purmas.

Both purmas and monte alto contribute roundwood and other building materials for house construction. For instance, 52 of the 55 households in San Rafael use palm leaves as roofing material. The frames of houses in the community are built entirely of locally extracted roundwood. Floors and walls are often constructed using both local materials and sawn lumber. The roundwood species and other building materials extracted from purmas (table 10.3) differ from those extracted from monte alto (table 10.4).

Table 10.3 Species of roundwood (R) and other construction materials (Com) collected from purmas in San Rafael, Iquitos, July 1989

Species of roundwood and other construction materials generally are not planted in purmas. However, people in the community tend to protect them. For instance, when people clean their fields they usually leave and protect the seedlings of useful tree species. In contrast, useful species in monte alto are not cultivated to any degree. As a result, some of the monte alto species are overexploited. A high market value in Iquitos for a forest species generally leads to its overexploitation. Two such roundwood species are extremely rare at present: huacapu (Lindackeria paludos) and tortuga caspi (Duguetia lucida). Similarly, chuchuhuasha (Heisteria pallida), a medicinal species now widely favoured as an alcohol extract, is quite scarce. These are all slow-growing species, and regeneration in the forest appears to be absent.

Fruit species are also collected from both monte alto and purmas. The number of fruit species collected from monte alto (table 10.5) is greater than that collected from purmas (table 10.6). However, owing to the greater density of fruit-bearing tree species in the more accessible purmas, extraction of fruits from there is more intensive than from monte alto. Nonetheless, two fruit species from monte alto with high value in Iquitos and in the community appear to be overexploited: ungurahui (Jessenia batua) and meto huayo (Loretoa spp.). Fortunately, these two species can be regenerated in both monte alto and in purmas. In fact, many people from the community have already planted them in their fields and fallows.

Table 10.4 Species of roundwood and other construction materials collected from monte alto in San Rafael. Iquitos, July 1989