Ba Vi

Ba Vi National Park is located about 65 km west of Hanoi. There are 1,229 steps to the summit of Ba Vi Mountain and the temple to Ho Chi Minh.  Halfway up is a small Buddhist shrine. [NOTE: The clip ends panning out over the Red River Valley towards Hanoi.]

Camu-camu

From 1984 to 1987, I lived and did research along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.  One of my study species was a small riparian shrub, Myrciaria dubia HBK McVaugh, known locally as "camu-camu". The fruits of camu-camu have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any fruit in the world.  Oranges have 30 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp, rose hips have about 100 mg, and camu-camu, in a class by itself, has 3,100 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp. The species grows in extremely dense stands along the banks of ox-bow lakes.  I ate a lot of camu-camu fruit while I was studying the ecology of this species.  It made blisters on my lips...but I never got a cold.

[NOTES: The second image shows a fruit collector in Supay cocha near my study site in Peru.  This picture was on the front page of the Washington Post (below the fold) on June 29, 1989.  All images were scanned from slides.]

Scenes from Kathmandu

In the late 1990's, I did some some project evaluations for the Biodiversity Conservation Network.  Some of these projects, e.g. Asian one-horned rhinos in Royal Chitwan National Park and sustainable exploitation of jatamansi (Nardostachys grandiflora) in Jumla, had me based in Kathmandu, Nepal.  [NOTE: These images have been scanned from slides.]

Bathing the Elephant

A slow Sunday morning on the Ledo Road (see Hukaung Valley Rattan Survey) is a good opportunity to bathe the elephant. [NOTE: Gentle pokes on the flank are used to get the elephant to turn.]

Threads of Life

Last September, Tony Cunningham and I gave a workshop to a group of weavers in Flores Barat, Indonesia on sustainable  harvesting of the plant dyes used in their textiles.  The weavers were worried that supplies of certain dye and mordant plants were running out.  They were right.  As a result of the workshop, we were able to develop a better system for producing "mengkudu" (Morinda citrifolia), an important red dye, and we located a dense population of "loba" (Symplocos spp.) in the forests of Tenda Bhera that could be managed to produce a virtually inexhaustable supply of leaves.  The leaves contain a high concentration of aluminium which acts to fix the red color.  The workshop was organized - flawlessly - by the Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali (YPBB) and Threads of LIfe  (thx, Jean and William).

[NOTES: The weavers are wearing their textiles as sarongs. The t-shirts show the whole plant collection, dyeing, and weaving cycle, and say "Nature Protected, Culture Conserved, Humanity Secure". The weaver in the lower image is holding a Symplocos leaf.]