Colombian Amazon Research Articles

Indigenous ecological calendars and seasonal vector-borne diseases in the Colombian Amazon: an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach

ABSTRACT Traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous groups in the southeastern Colombian Amazon coincides in identifying the two main hydrological transition periods (wet-dry: August-November; dry-wet: March-April) as those with greater susceptibility to disease in humans. Here we analyze the association between indigenous knowledge about these two periods and the incidence of two vector-borne diseases: malaria and dengue. We researched seven “ecological calendars” from three regions in the Colombian Amazon, malaria and dengue cases reported from 2007 to 2019 by the Colombian National Institute of Health, and daily temperature and precipitation data from eight meteorological stations in the region from 1990-2019 (a climatological normal). Malaria and dengue follow a seasonal pattern: malaria has a peak from August to November, corresponding with the wet-dry transition (the “season of the worms” in the indigenous calendars), and dengue has a peak in March and April, coinciding with the dry-wet transition. Previous studies have shown a positive correlation between rainfall and dengue and a negative correlation between rainfall and malaria. However, as the indigenous ecological knowledge codified in the calendars suggests, disease prediction cannot be reduced to a linear correlation with a single environmental variable. Our data show that two major aspects of the indigenous calendars (the time of friaje as a critical marker of the year and the hydrological transition periods as periods of greater susceptibility to diseases) are supported by meteorological data and by the available information about the incidence of malaria and dengue.

Transmission Dynamics of a Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Outbreak in an Indigenous Population in the Colombian Amazon Region.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has become the main tool for studying the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains; however, the clonal expansion of one strain often limits its application in local MTBC outbreaks. The use of an alternative reference genome and the inclusion of repetitive regions in the analysis could potentially increase the resolution, but the added value has not yet been defined. Here, we leveraged short and long WGS read data of a previously reported MTBC outbreak in the Colombian Amazon Region to analyze possible transmission chains among 74 patients in the indigenous setting of Puerto Nariño (March to October 2016). In total, 90.5% (67/74) of the patients were infected with one distinct MTBC strain belonging to lineage 4.3.3. Employing a reference genome from an outbreak strain and highly confident single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in repetitive genomic regions, e.g., the proline-glutamic acid/proline-proline-glutamic-acid (PE/PPE) gene family, increased the phylogenetic resolution compared to a classical H37Rv reference mapping approach. Specifically, the number of differentiating SNPs increased from 890 to 1,094, which resulted in a more granular transmission network as judged by an increasing number of individual nodes in a maximum parsimony tree, i.e., 5 versus 9 nodes. We also found in 29.9% (20/67) of the outbreak isolates, heterogenous alleles at phylogenetically informative sites, suggesting that these patients are infected with more than one clone. In conclusion, customized SNP calling thresholds and employment of a local reference genome for a mapping approach can improve the phylogenetic resolution in highly clonal MTBC populations and help elucidate within-host MTBC diversity. IMPORTANCE The Colombian Amazon around Puerto Nariño has a high tuberculosis burden with a prevalence of 1,267/100,000 people in 2016. Recently, an outbreak of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) bacteria among the indigenous populations was identified with classical MTBC genotyping methods. Here, we employed a whole-genome sequencing-based outbreak investigation in order to improve the phylogenetic resolution and gain new insights into the transmission dynamics in this remote Colombian Amazon Region. The inclusion of well-supported single nucleotide polymorphisms in repetitive regions and a de novo-assembled local reference genome provided a more granular picture of the circulating outbreak strain and revealed new transmission chains. Multiple patients from different settlements were possibly infected with at least two different clones in this high-incidence setting. Thus, our results have the potential to improve molecular surveillance studies in other high-burden settings, especially regions with few clonal multidrug-resistant (MDR) MTBC lineages/clades.

Factors Influencing Game-Based Learning in the Colombian Context: A Mixed Methods Study

Game-based learning (GBL) places high demand on educational resources and has been widely practiced in classrooms in many developed countries; however, few studies on GBL and its influencing factors have been conducted in developing countries. To address this research gap, a mixed-methods study was conducted in a state high school in the Amazon region of Colombia with 64 tenth-graders who were learning English as a foreign language to identify the factors that affect learners’ learning outcomes when serious games are applied to vocabulary learning, with a specific focus on learning engagement. This study drew on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from surveys, interviews, and pre- and post-tests. The results showed that engagement and prior knowledge can positively predict GBL outcomes, while contextual factors and family condition had an adverse impact on GBL outcomes (Adjusted R2 = 0.635, p < 0.01). The results also indicated that a male student with a higher level of prior knowledge would be more likely to achieve good grades in GBL. Based on the study results, several implications are proposed for incorporating serious games for vocabulary learning in less-developed regions. This study results provide important practical implications for high schools in developing countries to implementing GBL.

Political Ontologies of Colombian Amazonia: Peasant Resistance in Protected Areas

This paper investigates the ontological and material dimensions of peasant struggles in Colombian northwestern Amazonia in a context of increasing international deforestation concerns that press the Colombian government to enforce protected areas through military campaigns and market-based conservation programs. Building on ethnographic research in the region, the paper contributes to ongoing debates in the field of political ecology about the ontological dimension of dispossessions and social struggles. It brings together ontological studies with a perspective of critical geography to propose an integrative political ecology of socio-environmental conflicts that addresses the material and the ontological dimensions of domination and resistance.

A new species of Lucilia Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera, Calliphoridae) from the Amazon region and its potential distribution areas.

Lucilia amazonia, sp. nov. from the Amazon region of Colombia and Brazil is described based on morphology. This species appears to be limited to the Amazon region and is quite distinctive and unlike other Lucilia in the region. A key to the species is provided following the Lucilia key in Whitworth (2014). Based on the distribution observed, its likely distribution is predicted.

Amazonian visions of Visión Amazonía: Indigenous Peoples' perspectives on a forest conservation and climate programme in the Colombian Amazon

AbstractAlthough Indigenous Peoples' rights to own, control and manage their lands and territories are well established under international law, Indigenous Peoples affected by forest conservation and climate protection programmes continue to denounce interventions that fail to uphold their rights. This article focuses on the internationally funded Visión Amazonía REDD Early Movers programme in the Colombian Amazon. Drawing on observations and critiques by Indigenous rightsholders in the Middle Caquetá River and human rights insights from a legal complaint raised by one Indigenous community against the programme, we demonstrate the programme's inadequate protection of collective rights, especially relating to the fundamental right to free, prior and informed consent and the resulting inequitable benefit sharing. We focus on conflicting views between Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors over the definition of direct effects on Indigenous Peoples (which triggers the requirement for prior consultation and consent), the basis for inclusion of Indigenous Peoples as programme beneficiaries, and the role accorded to Indigenous science in such programmes. Notions of permission and consent in the customary law and economic practices of the concerned Indigenous Peoples are central to the conviviality and reproduction of human and non-human societies within their territories. To ensure more accountable and sustainable international environmental finance and conservation interventions, and to ensure respect for Indigenous Peoples' self-determination and territorial and cultural rights, we recommend that these initiatives adopt human rights-based, pluri-legal and intercultural approaches centring on the right to free, prior and informed consent as a structuring principle. Additionally, we call for more robust measures in forest and climate protection programmes, to recognize and respect customary law, collective property, traditional livelihoods and Indigenous science.

Nature, Labour, and Infrastructure in the Amazon: Miguel Triana’s Por el sur de Colombia

Focusing on Colombian engineer Miguel Triana’s 1907 travelogue Por el sur de Colombia, this article discusses the role that labour, broadly understood, plays in the projects of state transformation of the Putumayo region, in the Colombian Amazon. The text analyses the role that physical effort plays in making possible the construction of infrastructural works such as roads in the Amazon space, but also in the concrete forms of land cultivation he observes in Indigenous peoples and in his own process of writing his travelogue. Theories of environmental determinism turn out to be key in Triana’s understanding of labour as a way of transforming nature and bringing progress to the Colombian frontiers. The article makes clear the rhetorical process through which different forms of materiality – roads, bridges, books, cultivation – are seen as parallel forms of embodiment in the discourse of engineering.

Ecophysiological responses of Cupuassu tree ecotypes (Theobroma grandiflorum) in an agroforestry system designed with rubber trees in Colombian Amazon

Ecophysiological responses of Cupuassu tree ecotypes (<i>Theobroma grandiflorum</i>) in an agroforestry system designed with rubber trees in Colombian Amazon

Agroforestry systems generate changes in soil macrofauna and soil physical quality relationship in the northwestern Colombian Amazon

Agroforestry systems generate changes in soil macrofauna and soil physical quality relationship in the northwestern Colombian Amazon

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Hygiene and the Prevention of Trachoma in the Indigenous Population of the Colombian Amazon Vaupés Department

The Colombian program to end trachoma implements the component F of the SAFE strategy in the Vaupés department of the Amazon rainforest. Cultural, linguistic, and geographical barriers and the coexistence of an ancestral medical system demand the technical and sociocultural adaptation of this component. A cross-sectional survey combined with focus-group discussions to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the indigenous population related to trachoma was conducted in 2015. Of the 357 heads of households that participated, 45.1% associated trachoma with a lack of hygiene, and 94.7% associated the concept of hygiene with taking one or more body baths per day, using commercial or handcrafted soap. In total, 93% reported cleaning their children's faces and eyes more often when they have conjunctivitis, but 66.1% also did this with clothes or towels in use, and 52.7% of people shared towels; in total, 32.8% indicated that they would use ancestral medicine to prevent and treat trachoma. The SAFE strategy in Vaupés requires an intercultural approach to facilitate stakeholder support and participation to promote general and facial hygiene, washing clothes with soap, and not sharing towels and clothes to dry and clean children's faces for effective and sustainable elimination of trachoma as a public health problem. This qualitative assessment facilitated an intercultural approach locally and in other Amazonian locations.

Rivers and Reconciliation

AbstractThis article presents an ethnographic and participatory action research project to reconstruct the “socioecological memory” of the Mandur River watershed in the Colombian Amazon. The objective of this project was to create conditions for community dialogues over the territorial ordering, recovery, and conservation of the watershed in the midst of ongoing socio-environmental conflicts. The author introduces the proposal to engage in what grassroots organizations call “profound reconciliation” along with the ethical stakes of reconciliatory processes that tend to human and more-than-human relations damaged by the interconnected dynamics of structural violence and decades of war. The author presents the environmental humanities-based methodologies that emerged in the collective process to elaborate the memory of the Mandur. The article also discusses the importance of fostering spaces for bettering conflict and offers reflections about the challenges posed for public engaged scholarship when a post–peace accord transition shifts toward the perpetuation of violence and militarized forms of conservation. Scientific and arts-based practices provided distinct evidentiary and speculative tools for analyzing the current conditions of the watershed and imagining future reparative strategies. The article argues that these methods allowed communities to not only diagnose the problems at hand but also hesitantly ask “What else is possible?” in a context of economic precarity, chronic insecurity, and institutional omission.

Gastrointestinal parasites in phyllostomid bats from the Colombian Amazon

ABSTRACT Bats are natural reservoirs of protozoal, viral, fungal and bacterial pathogens. However, little has been described about their endoparasites, especially in the Neotropics, despite the fact that this region represents a high taxonomic and functional bat diversity. In this study, we describe gastrointestinal parasites found in faecal samples of Neotropical bats from the Amazon rainforest of Colombia. We characterise the prevalence of parasites by employing flotation and McMaster techniques. We obtained 222 samples, but only 15 bats (6.8%) of the species Carollia brevicauda (n = 9), C. perspicillata (n = 3), Artibeus planirostris (n = 1), A. lituratus (n = 1) and Gardnerycteris crenulatum (n = 1) were positive for gastrointestinal parasites. This is the first survey of bat gastrointestinal parasites conducted in the Colombian Amazon. We report for the first time coccidian parasites in phyllostomid bats from Colombia. We also found nematodes in gestating females, which may suggest a transfer of parasites to the foetus during pregnancy in fruit bats. Besides insectivorous bats, frugivores can also represent a source for gastrointestinal parasites in the Neotropics, but the factors that determine their hosting capacity are still not fully understood. Further research should explore the interactions of wild and domestic hosts with parasites, which could be useful for analysing potential risks to the human population.

Scenarios of land use and land cover change in the Colombian Amazon to evaluate alternative post-conflict pathways

Pastures and crops have been expanding at an accelerated rate in the forests of the Colombian Amazon since the peace accords were signed in 2016. The rapid loss of tropical rainforests is threatening the integrity of protected areas and connectivity in the Amazon and other natural regions. In the context of the post-conflict stage, a set of land use and land cover change scenarios were constructed for the Colombian Amazon for the year 2040, using expert coherent narratives. Three scenarios were designed: trend, extractivist, and sustainable development. Historic land use change and driving factors were analyzed throughout 14 transitions between the years 2002 and 2016, based on the interpretation of Landsat images and their relationship with 29 driving factors using artificial neural networks. The Markov chain model was calculated for the transitions, and the change allocation model was parameterized to spatially simulate the scenarios. The results showed that the LULC model calibration and validation were satisfactory (0.91). The sustainable development scenario that considers strong policies for the conservation of forests and implementation of sustainable production projects was the option with greater values for conserved forests and secondary vegetation in recovery, adding ~ 42 million hectares by 2040. The other scenarios showed that the Colombian Amazon will lose ~ 2 million hectares of forests in the trend scenario and ~ 4.3 million hectares in the extractivist scenario, based on the reference year (2016). In the trend scenario, pastures and crops could increase by 48%; and, in the extractivist scenario, these would increase by 117%, changing from ~ 3.9 to ~ 8.6 million hectares. We hope that the scientific contribution of this study will be relevant for informed discussion in decision-making and provide a framework for building a peaceful territory.

The post-conflict expansion of coca farming and illicit cattle ranching in Colombia

Illicit cattle ranching and coca farming have serious negative consequences on the Colombian Amazon’s land systems. The underlying causes of these land activities include historical processes of colonization, armed conflict, and narco-trafficking. We aim to examine how illicit cattle ranching and coca farming are driving forest cover change over the last 34 years (1985–2019). To achieve this aim, we combine two pixel-based approaches to differentiate between coca farming and cattle ranching using hypothetical observed patterns of illicit activities and a deep learning algorithm. We found evidence that cattle ranching, not coca, is the main driver of forest loss outside the legal agricultural frontier. There is evidence of a recent, explosive conversion of forests to cattle ranching outside the agricultural frontier and within protected areas since the negotiation phase of the peace agreement. In contrast, coca is remarkably persistent, suggesting that crop substitution programs have been ineffective at stopping the expansion of coca farming deeper into protected areas. Countering common narratives, we found very little evidence that coca farming precedes cattle ranching. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the expansion of illicit land uses reflect the cumulative outcome of agrarian policies, Colombia’s War on Drugs, and the 2016 peace accord. Our study enables the differentiation of illicit land activities, which can be transferred to other regions where these activities have been documented but poorly distinguished spatiotemporally. We provide an applied framework that could be used elsewhere to disentangle other illicit land uses, track their causes, and develop management options for forested land systems and people who depend on them.

Factors influencing the use of non-timber forest products in cattle production under humid tropical conditions

As more attention is paid to the integral management and the problems of cattle production systems in the achievement of sustainable productivity and competitiveness in the territories of the Colombian Amazon region, it is necessary to determine the socioeconomic factors that affect the use of the potential and comparative advantages of productive units located in the region for nutritional supplementation from local inputs, such as Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP). For this purpose, a descriptive-cross-sectional scope with non-experimental design and quantitative approach study was carried out, applying the collection instrument to the sample size defined in a nonprobabilistic way in the municipalities of Albania San Vicente del Cagu&amp;aacute;n, El Doncello, Puerto Rico, and Cartagena del Chaira of the department of Caquet&amp;aacute; Colombia. Information was systematized using the R software, where the principal component analysis of the socioeconomic factors with the use of cattle nutrition in the NTFP was carried out. It was found that the factors that have the greatest impact on the use of NTFP are related to the degree of knowledge about NTFP and the strategies for the transfer of scientific knowledge as a complement to the knowledge of the producers.

Food Habits of Five Fish Species from A Blackwater Creek in The Colombian Amazon

To provide baseline life history information for some of the many small fishes found in blackwater forest streams in the Colombian Amazon near the town of Leticia, we describe trophic aspects of five species of fishes. Collections were made in April (high water), July (falling water) and November (rising water) of 1999. Diverse fishing gear was used, and sampling occurred in the afternoon and night, and usually lasted an average of five hours. We studied stomach contents of four characids: Ctenobrycon hauxwellianus (Cope 1870), Moenkhausia melogramma Eigenmann 1908, Tetragonopterus argenteus Cuvier 1816, Hemigrammus bellottii (Steindachner 1882) and one cichlid: Bujurquina cf. peregrinabunda (Eigenmann 1922). Most are feeding generalists but M. melogramma had a great preference for aquatic invertebrates, and B. cf. peregrinabunda ate both aquatic invertebrates and fishes.

Canangucha (Mauritia flexuosa L. f): A potential fruit in the colombian amazon

Canangucha is a palm from the Colombian Amazon of great industry interest, due to its expansion and ecosystem and food services it offers to communities. The objective of this work was to evaluate the morphometric, physical, and chemical characteristics, as well as the yield of the canangucha fruit in both EI and EII ecotypes, this characterization can become the starting point for the development of the value chain of the fruit. For the fruits and seeds, the longitudinal diameter (LD), equatorial diameter (ED), mass (g), and color (L*, a*, b*) were determined. The pulp was characterized based on pH, °Brix, moisture content, aw, color, crude protein, total lipids, crude fiber, carbohydrates, minerals, total phenols (TP), antioxidant capacity (ABTS and DPPH methods), α-carotene, β- carotene and α-tocopherol. The fruit mass is comprised 61-65% seed, 15 17% pulp and 19-21% pericarp. The morphometric variables of the fruit and seed of ecotypes I and II showed a significant difference (P&lt;0.05). The color of the fruit presented significant changes based on its ripeness, and the luminosity fluctuated between 26.8%-53.7%; while the pulp presented a yellow-orange hue with a variation in the color plane (a*, b*), being between (11.3, 5.1) and (23.4, 43.5). The EI ecotype pulp presented better quality attributes: total lipids (34.2%), crude fiber (22.2%), crude protein (6.8%), pH: 3.6-4.4, °Brix: 15-16, TP: 1467.3±146.5 mg GAE 100g-1, DPPH: 2.5±0.1 mg TE g-1, ABTS: 3.0±0.2 mg TE g-1, β carotene: 68.2±9.6 mg 100g-1, and 11927.7 µg RAE. It was concluded that canangucha has an important nutritional value and compounds with physiological activity, which identifies it with great potential to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Littoral areas of Amazonian floodplain lakes: a biological reserve to biodiversity loss

Carbon from aquatic plants and periphyton in littoral zones subsidize food webs. Field work was carried out in two different lake types in the Colombian Amazon: a várzea (Yahuarcaca) and an igapó (Pacatúa). Plants in the littoral zone of várzea Lake had higher photosynthetic biomass compared to the plants of the littoral zone of igapó, but differences in root biomass were not significant. The two littoral zones contained a relatively high species richness and diversity (Shannon-Wiener Index) of organisms associated with the roots, although no significant differences existed between the two lakes. Littoral areas may be important in relatively isolated and physically fragmented large terrestrial landscapes such as the Amazon basin.

Soldadinhos (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha: Aetalionidae e Membracidae) do extremo oeste do Acre, Brasil, com ênfase na fauna do Parque Nacional Serra do Divisor

Abstract The first list of Aetalionidae and Membracidae species for western Acre is presented, including the Alto do Juruá regions of Serra do Divisor National Park and the Campus Floresta of the Federal University of Acre. In total, 94 species of treehoppers were collected, of which Centrotinae (Membracidae) is recorded for the first time for Brazil (Abelus maculatus Schimidt), another 16 species are new Brazilian records, and 69 species (Aetalionidae and Membracidae) are new records for Acre. Data on type locality, geographic distribution and images of all species are presented. The males of Lophyraspis fenestrata Sakakibara &amp; Creão-Duarte and Erechtia sanguinolenta (Fairmaire) are known for the first time. The species diversity was compared to four other treehopper surveys in the Amazon region, with similarity indices of about 43.6% for Colombian Amazon (at least 650 km away), 27.6% for Panguana Biological Research Station, Peru (250 km), 20.2% for Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Brazil (1,600 km) and 8.5% for Villa Carmen Biological Station/Los Amigos Biological Station, Peru (600/700 km). The estimated richness of Serra do Divisor National Park was just over 70%, suggesting that local diversity could be significantly higher than that presented in this study.

Forest degradation by grazing: a case study in the northern Colombian amazon

Se sabe que la expansión de la frontera agropecuaria y la praderización han causado deforestación y fragmentación de los bosques Amazónicos. Sin embargo, no se ha determinado si ingreso de ganado a pastorear degrada los bosques. Por lo cual, establecimos transectos borde-interior en tres ambientes contrastantes de bosques húmedos tropicales del norte de la Amazonia Colombiana, correspondientes a: áreas boscosas con presión ganadera (pastoreo), bosques adyacentes a cobertura de pastos sin uso y bosques adyacentes a plantaciones de caucho. En cada transecto se analizaron las variaciones de los atributos de composición, estructura y diversidad de la regeneración natural. Se encontró que los bosques sin pastoreo poseen hay mayor diversidad en la regeneración natural y presencia de especies trascendentales en la dinámica sucesional. En comparación a los bosques con pastoreo, en los cuales se observaron patrones específicos de ambientes perturbados, como la presencia de especies generalistas, heliófitas, de hábitos herbáceos y de rápida colonización que pueden dificultar el reclutamiento de especies forestales. En los bosques adyacentes a plantaciones de caucho, se registró una mayor diversidad de especies forestales de gremios heliófilos y esciofitos. Esta caracterización aporta una mayor comprensión a la interacción de la actividad ganadera con recursos como la biodiversidad, mostrando la necesidad de direccionar el manejo ganadero a prácticas que limiten el pastoreo en las áreas boscosas para no afectar drásticamente su dinámica ecológica.