Wanamey Center arranges workshops of shamanism and Ayahuasca where it combines rituals of purification, purgation with medicinal plants, ceremonies of Ayahuasca and spirituality, all of that with the objective of initiating the participants in the path to harmony and physical , spiritual, mental and emotional restoration. The participants will have the opportunity to experiment the traditional amazonic medicine.

The shamanism and Ayahuasca workshop implies: Rituals of purification, isolation in our huts, purges, diets, fast, and abstention of some foods. These procedures must be fulfilled with strict discipline

In the Workshops of shamanism and Ayahuasca we offer customer service, consultation and personalized guidance.

The Center of Traditional Medicine Wanamey, place where the Workshops will be carried out, is located in the Cultural Zone of the Biosphere Reserve of Manu – Cusco – Peru.

FIRST DAY: We depart from the City of Cusco at 8:00 a.m. The distance of 200 km will be covered (approximately 9 hours to Pilcopata). In the trajectory we will be able to watch beautiful Andean valleys and indigenous quechua communities, we will visit the “Chullpas of Ninamarca”, funerary center of the culture Lupaca (Pre Inca). At noon we will have lunch in Paucartambo, town of colonial roots. Then we will keep driving to the place called Tres Cruces, entrance to the biosphere reserve of Manu where we will have a ceremony to ask for permission to the spirits of the jungle, at the end of the afternoon we will arrive to the Traditional Medicine Center Wanamey.

SECOND DAY: At 6:00 a.m. we will have a ceremony of purification – Cleanliness – harmonization with purgative plants and tobacco. We will drink infusions made of plants. This day we will fast until approximately midday. By the afternoon we will have individual chats.

THIRD DAY: At 6:00 a.m. we will have a connection and harmonization ceremony with water, in the river Orinoco, at a five minute walk from the Wanamey Center .

Different therapies of purification and harmonization through sauna baths with aromatic plants and infusions with medicinal and teacher plants will take place. We will have a preparation and informative chats for the Ayahuasca ceremony, later we will rest and prepare ourselves for the Ayahuasca ceremony.

FOURTH DAY: The patient must rest and reflect on the experience of the last night. We will have individual chats that will help us to understand the purpose of the session, by night another ceremony with Ayahuasca will be done.

FIFTH DAY: After breakfast, we will make a visit to the forest of the Wanamey Center  where we will offer chats about “Medicinal Plants” and “Traditional Medicine” using the wide variety of medicinal plants and other species we grow. We will have a ceremony of purification – protection and thanking to Mother Nature.

SIXTH DAY: Early in the morning we will start the journey back to Cusco, where we will arrive in the afternoon.

The workshops are oriented to people that look for serious and reflexive bonds with the teacher plants. They must have profound motivations in order to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self development and spiritual and emotional balance. We demand will, patience and faith from the participants because through these principles we reach a harmonic relationship with Mother Nature to grow with “the feet on earth and the head high in the sky.

Wanamey Center carries out “Spiritual Retirements and Diets with Ayahuasca” in Cusco for four days. The participants will have the opportunity to know and experience the goods of the amazonic traditional medicine, specially those of ayahuasca, the mother plant; this way, the participants will initiate their personal way to harmony, physical, spiritual, mental and emotional healing.

The retirements are made for people that look for serious and reflexive links to the teacher plants. They must have profound motivations to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self development  and spiritual balance. We ask the participants for will, patience and faith, since it is through these principles that we will reach a harmonic relationship with Mother Nature in order to grow with “Our feet on the ground and the head in the sky”.

The retirements are carried out with no more than five people at the same time. The retirements imply customer service, integration, consultations and personalized guidance. We demand discipline and commitment before and during the retirement,  especially with the given restrictions about food (low salt and sugar content food), the fasting and resting hours.

Objectives of the Spiritual Retirement with Ayahuasca:

·         Physical and spiritual cleanliness.

·         Lineament of the spiritual body.

·         Treatments for illnesses in general.

·         Personal evolution – self-discovery.

·         Induction to relaxation through self-observation of our being.

·         Discover the reasons of our ailments and ways to heal ourselves.

During the Spiritual Retirement the following activities will be developed:

Purification rituals with purufying plants and Tobacco powder. The plants will be drunk and the black tobacco powder will be blown into the nostrils of the participant.

Purification rituals

Purifying baths based in aromatic and medicinal plants

Ingestion of different infusions made of medicinal plants.

Two ceremonies of Ayahuasca will take place. “Ayahuasca is denominated Doctor because she cures, Teacher because she teaches and Mother because she guides. It gives power, knowledge and vision.

We will have chats about “Traditional Amazonic Andean and Medicine”

Our service includes lodging and feeding in the Monte de Aguila meditation center (Saylla, located at a half of hour drive from Cusco city – Perú)

Includes transportation from Cusco – Monte de Aguila meditation center – Cusco)

Preparation Diet:

“Shamanism and Ayahuasca are disciplined and strict methods to obtain healing, power and personal growth”.

In order to learn from the Master Plants the body will have to be purified and harmonized. The participant must fulfil with discipline the following recommendations seven days before attendingthe Retirement:

Reduce the excess of sugar, salt and red pepper in his/her feeding.

Do not eat any type of meats, specially red meats and pig.

Do not drink coffee or sodas.

Sexual abstention

Avoid the consumption of drugs and alcohol before and during the Retirement.

Consider the following contraindications:

Menstruating or pregnant women and the people with heart problems cannot attend the ritual of Ayahuasca.

Before being part of our Retirements, you must fulfil the following requirements:

Have mental, physical and emotional growth.

Send a letter explaining your desires of being part of the retirement.

Fill out your Personal Information Sheet.

The Wanamey Tradicional Medicine Center is offering “Diet & Retreats with Ayahuasca” (five days), where the participants will have the chance to know and feel the benefits of Ayahuasca as part of the amazonian traditional medicine. This way, they will be able to start their personal journey to physical, emotional, mental and spirit ual harmony and health.

The retirements are made for people that look for serious and reflexive bonds with the master plants. Those interested must have profound motivations in order to heal their bodies and discover the paths of self-development besides of spiritual and emotional balance.

We propose a harmonic relation with Mother Nature so we can heal ourselves with “our feet based on the ground and our head in the sky”. For this reason we ask the participants for will, patience, faith and a mind free of fears.

Ayahuasca Retreats imply customer service and personal guidance and consultation.

Retreats will be carried out with at least one participant and no more than five

The retirement includes:

Purification baths in the river.

Baths with purifying and aromatic plants.

Ritual of purification with purging plants and tobacco powder for body, mental, emotional and spritual cleansing.

Two ceremonies of Ayahuasca will take place. “Ayahuasca is denominated Doctor because she heals, Teacher because se teaches and Mother because she guides”. She gives power, knowledge and vision.

A walk in the forest of Wanamey Center. Lectures concernig Medicinal Plants and Tradicional Medicine in our ethnobotanical garden.

Lodging and food in the Wanamey Center ( Pillcopata Town, in the Biosphere Reserve of Manu National Park, Cusco – Peru)

We will help you to coordinate your transport Cusco-Wanamey Center-Cusco.

Preparation Diet:

“Shamanism and Ayahuasca are disciplined and strict methods to obtain treatment, power and personal development”.

In order to learn from Master Plants our body must be purified and in harmony. The participant must carefully fulfil the following recommendations seven days before attending the Retirement:

Reduce the excess of sugar, salt and red pepper in your foods.

Do not eat any type of meats, especially red and pig.

Do not drink coffee or sodas.

Sexual abstention

Avoid the consumption of drugs and alcohol before and during the Retirement

Counter indications:

Pregnant or menstruating women and people with heart problems cannot attend the ritual of Ayahuasca.

Consult prices.

Even though he was Wanamey Medicine Center concerning the Shamanism & Ayahuasca Workshop.

The workshop includes 2 Ayahuasca ceremonies, rituals, purgues, lectures,
therapies, trips, accommodation, vegetarian food(days of ayahuasca
ceremonias the participants will fast) and trasportation(Cusco-Wanamey
center-Cusco).

The program last six days with  maximum five people. We make agreements of
programs and special conditions for groups

The workshop begins in the city of Cusco and continues in the Wanamey
medice center (Pilcopata), to nine hours of journey.

Concernig dates of workshops, we are available during the whole year,
however if you wish to participate, you`ll must reserve in advance. Tell
us please in wich date you´ll like to come.
Requirements:

Reservations and payments:

-You must confirm your participation with a Western Union money order.

-Participants will have to comply with diets and restrictions.

-We ask for a letter explaining why you wish to participate.

-Please fullfill and send us the personal sheet you´ll find in the

- The realization of a workshop requires the participation of  minimum one
person and a maximum of five people.

More information in the attached file

We reccomend to bring:

-2 pairs of long trousers
-2 shorts
-2 long-sleeved shirts
-2 short-sleeved shirts
-Flaslight
-Sandals
-Bathing suits
-Raincoat
-Mosquito repellent
-Hat
-Towel
-Personal claning utensils

By Lisa Garrigues / Today correspondent

PILCOPATA, Peru – Alejandro Jahuanchi’s dream began before its time.

Now, nine years after his death, his children, Ruth and Joel, have built the vision he dreamed of: the Wanamey Center, a cultural center in the southern Peruvian jungle that seeks to preserve the medicine and craftsmanship of the Wachiperi and other peoples.

The center is named after the Wanamay Tree, which the Wachiperi had to climb to save themselves from destruction by a huge fire, according to oral tradition.

The Wachiperi, like the Machiguenga, the Aramkbut and other peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, only came into large-scale contact with outsiders 60 years ago, but their culture, knowledge and language are already disappearing. Elders describe whole families dying during the smallpox epidemic brought by outsiders, and many Wachiperi children are growing up without their language.

Alejandro Jahuanchi was a founder and leader of the Wachiperi community of Queros in the Kosnipata region near the Manu National Park, a healer who worked with ayahuasca and other traditional plant medicines, as well as an elementary school teacher and international lecturer.

For most of his adult life, Ruth remembers, he rejected his Native heritage and passed on very little of it to his children. Then, abruptly, after Jahuanchi spend some silent time alone in the heat of the jungle, there was a change.

”Suddenly he wanted us to learn Wachiperi; he wanted us to know what he knew,” Ruth said. ”I’m not going to teach you anything, he told us, but you’re going to learn. And that’s the way it happened. My brother is an ayahuascero and I have the knowledge of the other plants.”

Jahuanchi worked tirelessly to put his vision of the Wanamey Center into practice, speaking to nongovernmental organizations and other potential supporters about the importance of preserving the traditional knowledge of fast-disappearing Amazon cultures, about the creation of a center that would also be a place for local healers to exchange knowledge.

Jahuanchi died just before he was to receive funding for the project. The responsibility for the project fell on the shoulders of Juaranchi’s then 23-year-old son, Joel.

”It was really hard to follow in my father’s footsteps,” Joel. ”I was too young, I didn’t inspire the confidence that he did. We never got the funding.”

But Joel persisted. At one point he asked everyone he knew for a $5 donation to help with construction of the center, raising a grand total of $200. Community members who said they were interested in the project never followed through, even when Joel was able to convince outside consultants to meet with the community.

”They wouldn’t show up at meetings because they had to go fishing. The idea of investing time and energy in a long-term project like the center was something new, not part of the traditional way of life.”

Some Wachiperi said they didn’t want to host a gathering of traditional healers from other communities, and disapproved of Jahuanchi’s activities.

Joel and Ruth decided to continue the project on their own.

”Despite the hardships, or maybe because of them, I discovered that I could have a mission to my life,” Joel said.

A family friend, Californian Donna Runnals, supported Joel and Ruth in obtaining construction funding and in organizing meetings between elders from the region who could exchange their information and pass it on to the next generation.

”The important thing is we are sharing,” said Ruth. ”It used to be that traditional healers and craftsmen were jealous of their knowledge, keeping it to themselves. But now they realize that if they don’t share it, it’s going to die with them.”

Many of the elders who attended the 2002 meeting have already died, say Wachipericommunity members.

Unlike other Amazon communities, the plant life that has provided medicine in this region near the Manu National Park has not yet been severely affected by logging or oil and gas development, Ruth said, though gas development in the region is being planned by Hunt Oil.

But increasingly, the Wachiperi have been encouraged to turn to modern medicines for health problems, and they don’t always work.

”It used to be you took a plant medicine to cure snakebite, and it went away,” she said. ”Now, they send you to the health center to take a pill. Maybe you are cured, and maybe you aren’t.”

New diseases like cancer, arising from contact with mestizo civilization, have also aggravated the Wachiperi’s health situation, she said.

Native-run cultural preservation projects like the Centro

Wanaymay are rare in this region of Peru, according to local residents.

Though plenty of anthropologists and others have come through the Peruvian Amazon documenting Native plant medicines and other knowledge, very little of their research has been shared with the Native communities themselves, local residents complain.

Despite all the effort the Jahuanchi family has put into the Wanamey Center, Joel is philosophical about the disappearance of tradition among the Wachiperi .

”Cultures disappear,” he said. ”It’s part of the human cycle. We need to realize where we are now,” he said, ”not where we’d like to be. And we need to start with forgiveness.”

Joel is now focused more on running the center as a business then on raising money from NGOs. The center offers week-long courses in traditional plant medicine to international visitors, including ayahuasca sessions. He hopes to be able to finance more encounters between local healers with the profits. He is also branching out into a personal development consulting business, assisting his home community of Queros in developing tourism projects, and seeking to organize a first-time encounter of the Wachiperi, who now number about 500 and include people living outside of Peru.

Source: www.indiancountrytoday.com

During the Autumn of 2001, Living Bridges Foundation sponsored a CECUWA project  (Centro Wanamey Foundation) to train thirty young people of the village of Huacaria (ethnic Machigenga) and from Qeros (ethnic Wachiperi) in the traditional methods of construction of ceramics both for home and ornamental use and for sale to local tourists.

The “art of ceramics” is currently well known  by only one elder woman from Q’eros. It was feared that without utilizing her knowledge, that the art would be lost to the remaining members of the culture.

During the workshop, that was held in the village of Huacaria, the elder woman demonstrated the gathering constructing and firing and painting of ceramic ware

In June 2002 at the new Centro Wanamey in Philcopata, Peru, CECUWA (Centro Cultural Wanamey) conducted the third cultural preservation workshop of traditional Huachipayri arts and crafts, “The Art of Hand-Woven Bolsas”, “Jempu” as they are called in Huachipayri, for women and children from the villages of Qeros and Huacaria.

Several of the elder women from Q’eros and Huacaria acted as instructors during the weekend for the younger women and girls many of whom had no knowledge of “how to make” the woven shoulder bags. The bags are very strong and are used to carry fruit from the forest, yucca and other vegetables from the chacras and other personal uses. In addition, the bags can be sold to tourists visiting Philcopata for additional income.

The Course teachings included

• Identifying the correct trees from which to obtain the bark for weaving
• Preparation of the fibrous bark material
• Weaving the baskets utilizing hands, feet and toes!

The Goals

Besides preserving the art of bolsa weaving, the Course increased the baseline number of persons well-trained in the practice. This increases the chances of future survival of this ancient art!

During the month of May 2001, Living Bridges funded a project offered by CECUWA, Cultural Center Wanamey, directed by the son of Don Alejandro Darikiking Jahuanchi, Joel Jahuanchi.

The project was centered on training a group of youth aged 15 to thirty years from the Huachipaeri community of Qeros in the theoretical and traditional practical knowledge of the ethnomedicine of this Amazon region.

History

The need to train youth in the use of traditional plant and spiritual “medicine” has been well established. During the last five decades cultural exchange with the outside world in the form of religion and commerce has greatly impacted both the interest in and possibilities for training.

Both the work of AMETRA (Application of Traditional Medicine) in 1986 and FENAMAD (Native Federation of the River Mother and Flowing) in 1991 had previously developed activites in this region with the objective of “revaluation” of traditional medicine and in the case of the latter, with the publication of a small manual on medicinal plants and their uses.

Most recently the Shamans Encounters sponsored by Pro-Naturaleza and Tropical Rainforest Coalition have increased the interest and involvement of the remaining elder teachers from the Huachpaeri tribe and other tribal ethnic members from the extended bio-region in the training of the Youth.

Activities and Methods

The thirty youth participating in the training workshop were divided into two groups each facilitated by an elder male Maestros. The Shamans of the Shamans Confederation refer to themselves as Maestros

The workshops held in the actual forest areas focused on identifying and teaching about the healing properties of various plants and actually practicing the application of “cures”.

Results

The workshop was well appreciated by all those youth in attendance.

It is hoped that other trainings with the youth will continue to inspire them to uphold the original values of their cultures and to foster the revived use of medicinal plants and “cures” for everyday ailments.

Manú National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Madre de Dios and Paucartambo, Cuzco. Before becoming an area protected by the Peruvian government, the ManúNational Park was conserved thanks to its inaccessibility. The park remains fairly inaccessible by road to this day. In 1977, UNESCO recognised it as a Reserve of Biosphere and in 1987, it was pronounced a World Heritage Site. It is the largest National Park in Peru, covering an area of 15,328 km².

The park protects all of the ecological zones that exist in the Amazon Basin, covering an altitudinal gradient between 150 and 4200 meters above sea level. Because of this topographical range, it holds one of highes biodiversity of any park in the world. Overall, more than 15,000 species of plants are found in Manú, and up to 250 varieties of trees have been found in a single hectare. The reserve is a destination for birdwatchers from all over the world, as it is home to over 800 species of birds, nearly the total for all of North America.

Park layout

The park encompasses virtually the entire watershed of the ManúRiver, from the sources of its tributaries high in the Andes, to its emptying into the Madre de DiosRiver. As the surrounding area is largely undeveloped and roadless, the only direct access is by boat, up the Manú River. This singular entry point is easily patrolled by park guards.

Park administration

As with all national parks in Peru, Manú is operated by INRENA, the National Natural Resources Institute (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales).

Human Habitation

Permanent human habitation is restricted to several small communities of the Matsigenga Amazonian tribal group, largely along the Manú river or one of its main tributaries. Several protected areas adjoining the park allow mixed use including tourism, hunting, logging, and harvesting of other resources. These areas, notably downstream on the ManúRiver, are included in the broader Manú biosphere reserve, but are not part of the national park.

Visitors within the national park include medical and educational professionals upon invitation by the indigenous community, and researchers with permits from INRENA. The Cocha Cashu Biological Station, under the guidance of renowned DukeUniversity ecologist John Terborgh is the largest and most established research site in the park, and is among the most well-studeied sites for biological and ecological research in the tropics.

Flora

More than 20,000 species. 40% of the park is Amazonian lowland tropical rainforest, including varzea, oxbow lakes, Iriartea palm swamps, and upland forest types.

Fauna

Mammals : 159 species

Reptiles: 99 species

Amphibians: 140 species

Birds: 800 species

Fish: 210 species

Insects (numerous undescribed species not included)

Butterflies : 1307 species

Ants: 300 species

Dragonflies: 136 species

Beetles: 650 species

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary  of doCip

Three days of exercises and exchange on the theme of traditional  learning and scientific knowledge for sustainable development

The spiritual heads and the indigenous traditional practitioners sang, danced and explained their traditional knowledge to Geneva’s local and international population

During a manifestation under the direction of a Committee of Honor presided over by Mrs. Ruth Dreyfuss, the president of the Swiss Confederation, and comprised of   other personalities such as Mrs. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mrs. Henrietta Rasmussen of the ILO, doCip celebrated its 20th Anniversary on the 8th, 9th and 10th of October at the Botanical Garden in Geneva.  Present were the shamans and representatives of indigenous peoples from all over the world.

These days were inaugurated by Counselor Robert Cramer representing the state of Geneva and a Meitei priestess from the state of Manipur in India, Mra. Oinamongbi Dhoi, who was accompanied by the traditional musician, Mr. Mahesh Meitei Heikhujam.

An international conference, uniting indigenous and scientific experts made clear the actuality of common knowledge shared by indigenous peoples from diverse regions of the world.

Below we have reproduced the conclusions and the resolution which were produced at this conference. They will be presented to the Working Group on Traditional Knowledge at the next conference of the Convention on Biological Diversity in March 2000 in Sevilla (Spain).

International Conference on Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge on the Sustainable Use of Plants:

Conclusions

1. Traditional knowledge of plants and its use spring from community elders, who are the traditional holders of knowledge. The study of plants cannot be undertaken without consulting the elders.  It is therefore of utmost importance to preserve traditional cultures through education in order to ensure continuity in the transfer of traditional knowledge from one generation to another, for the benefit of humankind.

2.  Individual and collective relationships, family and kinship systems, social institutions, traditional justice, music, dances, ceremonies, ritual performances and practices, games sports, language, narratives, mythology, stories, names, land, sea and air resources are intrinsically connected to nature, which reveal human beings’ relationship with plants and animals.  Their relationship extends not only to their physical environment but also to the cosmic universe.  Such relationship is expressed, among others, in traditional rituals using plants and animals as an offering to the cosmic universe to preserve nature and man.

3. Nature is an expression of being and the medium of communication between the Creator and the creature.  In many indigenous societies, the specific name of a plant itself encompasses a whole belief and value system.  In order to preserve traditional knowledge of plants, it is important to engage the international and scientific community to work together with indigenous peoples in cataloguing their plants.

4. On the use of scientific knowledge of the use of plants, indigenous and local communities know exactly how to discriminate between which methodology is useful and that which is destructive for them.  This skill emanates from their capability to recognize natural life cycles.  The civil society must therefore remain watchful that science and big business do not endanger these natural cycles.

5. Traditional knowledge is part of traditional culture, and plants represent a basic element of the ecosystem.  When biodiversity is threatened or destroyed, then plants are clearly affected.  Such destruction eventually destroys traditional knowledge and in the end, humankind itself.

6. Today, the international community recognizes the role and importance of traditional knowledge and traditional management practices in the achievement of sustainable development.  Some international instruments, e.g. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, have set a framework to consider traditional management practices and the participation of indigenous, local and coastal communities in resource management.

7.  It is important for indigenous organizations and other non-governmental organizations to make use of existing international instruments.  New proposals are needed to preserve wildlife, plants and species and to protect holders of traditional knowledge.

Specific recommendations for action

1. Introduce the study of a number of plants every year in the school curriculum starting from primary up to secondary school.

2. Enhance exchange of information on the use of plants through the use of modern communication technology, e.g. creation of Web sites, use of the clearing-house mechanism within the Convention on Biological Diversity.

3. Support existing networks created by and/or for indigenous peoples that seek to prevent the loss of  biodiversity.

4. Develop international instruments to protect holders of traditional knowledge and traditional resource use.

5. Support the creation of an international volunteer cooperation program that will assist in the scientific study of plants among indigenous communities.

6. Support the creation of a “cultural memory bank” by or in partnership with indigenous peoples.

7. Conduct educational seminars at the national level to identify useful traditional and scientific knowledge with or in partnership with indigenous peoples.

8. Lobby the international community to provide new financial resources to help preserve traditional knowledge and traditional management practices.

9.Identify new approaches and strategies to support the work of ongoing international processes, e.g. CBD, Ramsar Convention.

Resolution

Remembering that this year is the mid-point of the UN International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, and noting with appreciation that much has been done to further the cause on which the Decade was founded, but that much more remains to be done,

Referring to the Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, a fundamental document for the protection, preservation and promotion of indigenous knowledge, which is still under discussion in the UN Commission of Human Rights,

Referring also to the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, which contains important provisions relevant to indigenous knowledge and natural resource management, and noting with concern that it has been ratified only by a small number of governments,

Noting that the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international treaties and agreements concerning the sustainable management of natural resources increasingly recognize the importance of respecting the rights of indigenous peoples to the sustainable use of those resources and to the conservation and protection of their traditional ecological knowledge,

Noting with apprehension that the degradation of the environment has resulted not only in the loss of natural resources, but also in the erosion of traditional ecological knowledge and the loss of traditional management practices that helped maintain many of the most valuable ecosystems of the Earth,

Thanking doCip for the opportunity of bringing together indigenous experts on plant-related knowledge with scholars and academics of the Western disciplines, in order to find a common ground and mutual exchange of knowledge for the survival of indigenous knowledge and the enhancement of cooperation,

We, participants at the International Conference on Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge on the Sustainable Use of Plants, recommend unanimously that:

1. All necessary legal measures be urgently developed, promoted and instituted at global and national levels to ensure the survival and protection of indigenous knowledge systems and traditional management practices, as part of the inalienable heritage of humanity, and in particular to provide adequate legal protection to the rights of indigenous peoples in relation to their knowledge systems;

2. The inextricable link between the survival of traditional ecological knowledge and the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands and resources be recognized, and appropriate measures be taken to ensure full respect for those rights and security of land tenure and access to resources;

3. Appropriate programs and institutional facilities at global, national and local levels, in partnership with indigenous peoples and institutions, be developed and put in place to encourage and support the preservation and revitalization of indigenous institutions relevant to the conservation of traditional knowledge, including the founding of clearing-house mechanisms or cultural memory banks of indigenous knowledge;

4. Dissemination of indigenous knowledge in partnership with indigenous peoples in indigenous and mainstream fora and processes, including research, school and university education and curricula, seminars, conferences, mass media and other exchange platforms, and that the decisions to disseminate indigenous knowledge be taken up at program level;

5. The conclusions and recommendations of this Conference, as contained in the attached Summary of the Proceedings, be forwarded to all relevant international institutions and fora, for consideration and inclusion as appropriate in programs of action and relevant decisions.

The indigenous delegates who  shared doCip’s 20th Anniversary with the population of Geneva at the Botanical Gardens were :

* Priestess Oinamongbi Dhoni Leiphrakpam and traditional musician Mahesh Heikhujam, pertaining to the Meitei people from Manipur/India who danced and played some parts of the Lai Haraoba or “ Gods’ Celebration ”, a participating re-creation of the cosmos, the earth and humanity.

* The traditional practitioner from Tahiti, Vaihere Bordes, who alleviated mothers and children through her massages  and explained to them the signification of her practice.

* The ethno-botanist, Benedict Topin of the Kadazanduzun people, who described the role of  the purification of several plants used for the wedding ceremonies in his community in Borneo/Malaysia.

* The young spiritual leader and member of CONAP/Wanamey Center Joel Johuanchi from the Wachipaeri people of the Amazon Basin/ Cusco Peru/ The Manu Biosphere Reserve , who brought his testimony on the powers of Ayahuasca or Banisteriopsis caapi and the flower Jayapa or Floripondio.

* The President of the Programme for Development and Integration of the Pygmy Peoples of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kapupu Diwa Mutimanwa, who explained the use of the plant Mushubya as a remedy against infections, inflammations, bad spirits and others such as when a new king is enthroned.

* Ethnologist from Chukotka/Russia Galina Diachkova, who spoke about the importance for food, and the cosmology of her people, of several plants from the region of the Bering Strait, knowledge principally held by women.

* A traditional musician of the Yoeme or Yaqui people of Arizona, Felipe Molina, who is also  Coordinator of a project on diabetes, who showed the medicinal, spiritual and practical use (I don’t understand this phrase) Hu’upa or Proposis velutina as well as reed-canes  Vaaka ou Arundo donax.

* Shaman Victor Kilinan and his fellow the community leader François Alphonse from the Kariñ’a people, who built two ritual seats  in mahogany woods. They were accompanied by Frank Apollinaire, a young representative of  the Federation of the Amerindian Organizations of French Guyana.

* Finally, the traditional healer Germaine Cousin from Valais/Switzerland presented the virtues of several medicinal plants of the Alps.