Runa Nation

Fundación Runa accepts $100,000 CAF Grant

Last week Fundación Runa received a $100,000 grant from CAF (The Andean Development Bank). This grant is a part of a new agreement between Fundación Runa, CAF, and local governments to strengthen guayusa production in the Napo Province through capacity building and strategic partnerships. 

 

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 Eliot Logan-Hines, Executive Director of Fundación Runa, and Hermann Krützfeldt, Director of CAF, signed the agreement last week in Quito, Ecuador. Eliot was accompanied by Silverio Mamallacta, Runa's Technical Coordinator, and Leo Cerda, VP of Fundación Runa in the signing event. 

Eliot's Birthday Wish

The Executive Director of Fundación Runa has one wish for his birthday to send two Kichwa gentlemen to receive their MBA's in Quito. Watch the video below and donate here http://runaamazonscholarships.causevox.com/.

 

 

 

 

Guayusa Lost Its Mojo

 

Strange fact: Thousands of years of cultivation and human-driven selection have rendered guayusa unable to flower and propagate itself via seed. So how is Runa going to expand its production capacity in Ecuador? The answer: rooting cuttings, a process in which one cuts branches off an existing tree, buries half of each cutting in a rooting medium and then waits ~30 days for that cutting to bud new leaves and send out new roots. (To accomplish the latter, the newly cut branch releases a hormone that differentiates plant tissues into new roots and buds. Scientists are still unclear how. Miracle?).

It is key that cuttings are woody enough to sustain the growth of a new plant while still green enough with youthfulness to have sufficient reproductive power. Imagine an ideal cutting as a young adult, having enough stability to be a good parent and yet plenty of mojo to make it happen.

Note: to all you horticulturalists out there, a diagonal cut on the bottom of the cutting helps to both signify the correct orientation of the branch when planting, and increase surface area from which new roots can sprout. To learn more, please consult our in-house bonsai samurai specialist…yours truly.

Runa is currently in the process of rooting upwards of half a million guayusa cuttings in five different nurseries over the course of 2011. Now that’s what we call real reproductive power.

Ben Apple

Solving Pest Problems Responsibly

    As the demand for guayusa grows in the United States, Runa continues to research its cultivation in Ecuador so that it may continue to produce high quality guayusa with hundreds of small farmers. One of the most fascinating parts of our work is that we’re creating a new and sustainable production model for a previously unmanaged plant, a process which requires serious research protocols.

    With a degree in Forestry Management from the Escuela Superior de Politécnica de Chimborazo, Runa’s principle investigator is Ms. Adriana Mariño.  Adriana laughs that she recognizes there are more profitable ways to use her advanced degree, but for whatever reason she loves investigating insects! Previously Adriana has worked for some of the leading international reforestation organizations like PROFAFOR, and brings deep experience to Runa.

    For the last seven months she has worked day and night (no joke, she rivals Tyler for hours worked during the late night shift in the Archidona office) to investigate Integrated Pest Management solutions for guayusa in a variety of agroforestry settings. Below you can learn how Adriana’s research embodies Runa’s holistic approach to development and ecosystem conservation.

 

 What data are you collecting for Runa?

The goal of my research is three fold. I am cataloguing the insects endemic to guayusa’s ecosystem, identifying which of these pests are potentially dangerous to the longevity of the tree and creating an integrated pest management plan to combat the insects found to be harmful.

 What threatens the health of a guayusa plant?

If you grow guayusa in a monoculture, the practice of growing exclusively one species of plant on a plot of land, you will create an environment in which the harmful insects to guayusa will increase their numbers until they destroy the cultivation because it lacks the beneficial insects to maintain the natural balance. This in turn will provoke economical losses to the farmer who invested in this plot.  It is important for the production of guayusa that it is planted amongst other species. A mixed plantation favors the increase of beneficial insects thus reducing the density of harmful pests specific to any particular species. 

What is the difference between dealing with guayusa organically and using  Integrated Pest Management?

When you deal with a pest problem organically, you apply organic products directly to the plant. On the other hand, Integrated Pest Management systems look at the ecosystem holistically and tries to manage, in a comprehensive way, the beneficial and harmful insects to create a balance and avoid problems. For example, if an area is being adversely affected by caterpillars, one could introduce a species of insect that repels caterpillars.

 How is Runa applying what you’ve learned?

I have shared my research with Runa’s local field staff so they can look out for the harmful insects that I have discovered. The field staff help me by collecting specimens and describing guayusa-related insects and their behavior. With this information I can better identify which insects are harmful and which are helpful. Once I have collected all of the data, I will integrate it into my plan and create a guide to help the staff identify and solve pest problems on their own.

 

 
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Evolving As A Fully Living Human Being

 
Runa culture - deeply rooted, mythic, and evolving  - is what the indigenous Kichwa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon live in as their social environment, woven into the physical environment of the Amazon rainforest.  Perhaps better said, the Kichwa people live in a web of stories, memories, knowledge of the rainforest, and norms of social responsibility that they experience naturally as jokes, stories, and ceremonies, while we, as outsiders, are able to identify it as "another culture."  

From both the inside and the outside, it's clear that Runa culture "is changing" (in the woeful Inconvenient Truth sense),  or seen another way, is simply "evolving" naturally."  Indeed the environment in which the Kichwa people live today is radically different from how was 50 years ago or 500 years ago. But indigenous culture is evolutionary by design, expected to change with new generations as new stories are created, as the old stories are retold, and as they grow with an ever-changing environment. 

Everyday is an evolution of what it means to be Runa, a fully living human being. 

--Tyler Gage