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In the threatened palm swamps of southeastern Peru, wild vanilla orchids have been found climbing the trunks of aguaje palm trees. Researchers from the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program (AABP) at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) have been monitoring and cultivating these orchids to discover their economic potential as non-timber forest products. The author of the article describes AABP's work with wild vanilla orchids and explains how cultivation of such orchids could possibly provide economic benefits to local Peruvians and encourage conservation of threatened Peruvian swamp land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]