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Aim: In Amazonia, 227 of c. 16,000 tree species account for half the individual trees (termed ‘hyperdominant’ species), and a disproportionate number of these species are palms. Our objectives are to show how and whether palm abundance has changed through the Holocene. Here, we reconstruct a detailed fire and vegetation history from north-western Amazonia, with a focus on changes in palm abundances, and compare our results with regional data.Location: Amacayacu, Colombia.Taxon: Amazonian palms.Methods: We performed charcoal and phytolith analysis on soil cores, and obtained ages of past fires using 14C dating. We measured charcoal abundances and the relative abundances of phytoliths (silica-based microfossils) for all samples. We used these data to reconstruct changes in fire and vegetation, and compared these data with the species composition of palms in the modern forest.Results: Seven 14C dates from charcoal in three cores provided fire ages ranging from 1630 to 2450 calibrated years before present. Charcoal was absent from one-third of the cores. Palm phytoliths from genera such as Iriartea, Socratea, and Astrocaryum have increased through time, while genera such as Euterpe, Hyospathe, and Oenocarpus have remained relatively stable and similar to modern levels. Overall, palm abundances were negatively correlated with charcoal measurements. Decorated sphere phytoliths, produced from unknown arboreal taxa were positively correlated with charcoal presence and abundance.Main conclusions: Palms have increased at Amacayacu and other forest plots through time, but the increases are largest in north-western Amazonia. The presence of fire, however, dampens the increase in palms through time. When compared with reconstructions from other Amazon regions, our results suggest that increases in palm abundances in the late Holocene occurred both in the presence and absence of direct pre-Columbian human influence, and that response was strongest in north-western Amazonia when human influence was minimal.

This study presents a synopsis of the tribe Cocoseae (Arecaceae) for the Maranhão state, which was based on the descriptive analysis of voucher specimens of national and international herbaria, from loans, collection visits, digital platforms, and materials collected in expeditions. Twenty-five species belonging to seven genera were identified. The genus Bactris Jacq. ex Scop. was the most representative with seven species, followed by Attalea Kunth. (five spp.), Syagrus Mart. (five spp.), Astrocaryum G. Mey. (three spp.), Desmoncus Mart. (three spp.), Acrocomia Mart (one spp.), and Allagoptera Nees (one sp.). Four new records of occurrence were found for Maranhão: Allagoptera leucocalyx (Drude) Kuntze, Attalea barreirensis Glassman, Attalea phalerata Mart. ex Spreng. and Syagrus glazioviana (Dammer) Becc. This paper presents a taxonomic key for the species, as well as geographic distribution maps and photographic plates with the distinguishing characteristics for each taxon. Besides the taxonomic characteristics, common names, ecological data, and conservation status are included.

Located at the northwestern part of the Amazon basin, Rio Negro is the largest black-water river in the world and is one of the poorest studied regions of the Amazon lowlands. In the middle-upper part of the Rio Negro were retrieved sediment cores form Lake Acarabixi, which were analyzed using pollen, spores, charcoal, and geochemistry. The aim of this study was to detect the influences from humans and river dynamics on the vegetation history in the region. Two main periods of vegetation and river dynamics were detected. From 10,840 to 8240 cal yr BP, the river had a direct influence into the lake. The lake had a regional input of charcoal particles, which reflected the effect of the dry Holocene period in the basin. Furthermore, highland taxa such asHedyosmumandMyrsinewere found at that time along with igapó forest species that are characteristic to tolerate extended flooding likeEschweilera,Macrolobium, Myrtaceae,Swartzia, andAstrocaryum. During the late Holocene (1600 to 650 cal yr BP), more lacustrine phases were observed. There were no drastic changes in vegetation but the presence of pioneer species likeVismiaandCecropia, along with the signal of fires, which pointed to human disturbances.

O objetivo da pesquisa foi caracterizar a diversidade florística e os padrões ecológicos de comunidades de palmeiras na Área de Proteção Ambiental, Ilha do Combu, Belém, Pará visando contribuir para um melhor entendimento dos padrões de distribuição das espécies no contexto amazônico oriental e subsidiar as políticas públicas para as Unidades de Conservação Urbanas. Foram demarcadas aleatoriamente 60 parcelas de 50 m x 50 m (15 ha) e analisada a composição florística e os padrões ecológicos pelo hábito de crescimento, status ecológico, ambiente de ocorrência e grupos ecológicos. Foram registrados 14 gêneros e 23 espécies com 8.072 indivíduos. Os gêneros mais representativos em espécies foram Astrocaryum, Bactris, Desmoncus e Geonoma, enquanto Euterpe oleracea, Astrocaryum murumuru, Socratea exorrhiza, Bactris major, Astrocaryum tucuma, Astrocaryum vulgare, Raphia taedigera, Bactris minor, Desmoncus polyacanthos e Mauritia flexuosa com ≥100 indivíduos. Os padrões ecológicos mostraram a dominância do hábito arbustivo e nativas do ambiente de várzea alta e climácicas. A diversidade florística associada aos padrões ecológicos caracteriza a APA como importante banco de germoplasma de palmeiras para fins de conservação e de qualidade de vida ambiental dos moradores locais. Palavras-chave: Arecaceae, qualidade ambiental, unidade de conservação. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18561/2179-5746/biotaamazonia.v5n3p8-13

The spear leaves of the palms Astrocaryum chambira and A. standleyanum have been traditionally used by Colombian indigenous communities as a source of fiber for handicraft production. Traditional management practices, including destructive harvest, have reduced population sizes of both species. We monitored a population of A. chambira in the Amazon, and one of A. standleyanum at the Pacific lowlands of Colombia. We then constructed integral projection models (IPM) to evaluate the transient population dynamics of populations under different exploitation regimes. Our results show that during the next 50 years the population of A. standleyanum will grow at an annual rate of 2.0 percent, and that of A. chambira at a rate of 0.8 percent. However, projected population growth is highly sensitive to harvest in both species: a destructive harvest of 5 percent of all usable individuals (subadults and adults) would cease population growth, while a 10 percent harvest intensity would cause populations to decrease by 0.5–0.6 percent annually. Our simulations further indicate that management practices associated with indigenous slash-and-burn agriculture would reduce fiber production, whereas caring for seedlings would increase population growth and fiber production in the coming decades. In order to sustain viable populations of both species and maintain a steady fiber supply, it is vital to prevent destructive harvest practices, and to leave some forest areas untouched, where populations can regenerate and act as a source of seedlings for intervened areas.

Question: To what extent can aerial photography be used for taxonomic identification of Amazonian tree crowns? Objective: To investigate whether a combination of dichotomous keys and a web-based interface is a suitable approach to identify tree crowns. Location: The fieldwork was conducted at Tiputini Biodiversity Station located in the Amazon, eastern Ecuador. Methods: High-resolution imagery was taken from an airplane flying at a low altitude (600 m) above the ground. Imagery of the observable upper layer of the tree crowns was used for the analysis. Dichotomous identification keys for different types of crowns were produced and tested. The identification keys were designed to be web-based interactive, using Google Earth as the main online platform. The taxa analysed were Iriartea, Astrocaryum, Inga, Parkia, Cecropia, Pourouma, Guarea, Otoba, Lauraceae and Pouteria. Results: This paper demonstrates that a combination of photo-imagery, dichotomous keys and a web-based interface can be useful for the taxonomic identification of Amazonian trees based on their crown characteristics. The keys tested with an overall identification accuracy of over 50% for five of the ten taxa with three of them showing accuracy greater than 70% (Iriartea, Astrocaryum and Cecropia). Conclusions: The application of dichotomous keys and a web-based interface provides a new methodological approach for taxonomic identification of various Amazonian tree crowns. Overall, the study showed that crowns with a medium-rough texture are less reliably identified than crowns with smoother or well-defined surfaces.

The importance of unflooded forests in the Amazon and the need to investigate how their soils affect their floristics and stand structure, lead me to set up and sampled trees in four plots in terra firme forest, in white sand forest and in palm forest at the same site in the Peruvian Amazon. I found (1) the white sand forest plot had 15 families with Clusiaceae, Malvaceae and Myrtaceae the most common and Pachira brevipes the most common species, (2) the palm forest plot had 6 families with Arecaceae, Clusiaceae and Fabaceae the most common and Socratea exorrhiza the most common species, and (3) the terra firme forest plot had 47 families with Myristicacea, Fabaceae and Bombacace the most common and Otoba parvifolia and Astrocaryum murumura the most common species. For the stand structure of these forests, (1) terra firme had more stems and larger stems than white sand and palm, and while palm had more stems than white sand, white sand had larger stems than palm, (2) species richness was greatest in terra firme and decreased by a factor of three in white sand, and by a factor of five in palm, (3) basal area decreased from terra firme to white sand, but white sand and palm were comparable, (4) white sand had the greatest above-ground biomass, followed by terra firme and palm, and (5) white sand and palm were much more open forests than terra firme. Results strongly suggest that soils are a significant causal factor in determining floristic and structural differences among these Amazon forests, where the richer soil of terra firme forest helps produce both more structure and a richer floristics compared to the poor soil of palm forests and the even poorer soil of white sand forests.

Se determinó una zona de contacto parapátrico entre Astrocaryum macrocalyx y Astrocaryum urostachys en el límite entre la planicie Marañón-Pastaza y el Arco de Iquitos, en la Amazonía norperuana. Para ello se realizó un muestreo de 35,5 hectáreas. Esta área de estudio se dividió en 9 transectos con dimensiones de 1 a 3 km por 20 m de ancho. Se tomaron datos de abundancia, altura de la planta y variaciones topográficas a lo largo de los transectos. Los resultados indican que estas especies entran en contacto solamente en una pequeña área en la zona de confluencia de los Ríos Marañón y Tigre en la margen suroccidental del arco de Iquitos. Durante la evaluación se registró un total de 1133 individuos del género Astrocaryum. La mayoría de individuos (58,5%) se ubican en las clases de tamaño inferiores (0-3,90 m de alto) mientras que los individuos mayores a 12 m representan 9,2% de los individuos censados. En las tres posiciones topográficas (pendientes, valles y colinas) la mayor cantidad de individuos están presentes en las laderas y en los zonas bajas de las colinas. This study identifies a parapatric contact zone between Astrocaryum macrocalyx and Astrocaryum urostachys at the boundary between the Marañón-Pastaza flood plain and the Iquitos Arch, in the northern Peruvian Amazon. The area sampled covers 35,5 ha in the form of 9 transects 1-3 km long × 20 m wide. All Astrocaryum individuals were recorded within the transects, and their size was measured as well as topographical data of the environment. The results show that the two species meet only in a small area in the confluence zone of Marañón and Tigre rivers near the southwest basement of the Iquitos Arch. A total of 1133 Astrocaryum individuals were recorded, mostly in the 0-3,90 m size classes, with only 9,2% of the individuals exceeding 12 m in high. Within the three topographical positions considered (slope, valley bottom and ridge), most individuals were found in the lower slopes and bottoms of valleys.

Fruit abundance is a critical factor in ecological studies of tropical forest animals and plants, but difficult to measure at large spatial scales. We tried to estimate spatial variation in fruit abundance on a relatively large spatial scale using low altitude, high-resolution aerial photography. We measured fruit production for all 555 individuals of the arborescent palm Astrocaryum standleyanum across 25 ha of mapped tropical moist forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, by visually counting fruits from the ground. Simultaneously, we used high-resolution aerial photographs to map sun-exposed crowns of the palm across the same area, which were then linked to ground-mapped stems. First, we verified that the fruit crop size of individual trees was positively associated with both crown presence on aerial photos and crown area visible on aerial photos. Then, we determined how well spatial variation in Astrocaryum fruit density across the study area was predicted by spatial densities of photo-detected crowns and crown area compared to spatial densities of ground-mapped stems and stem diameters. We found a positive association of fruit crop size with crown visibility on aerial photographs. Although representing just one third of all individuals in the study area, photo-detected crowns represented 57% of all fruits produced. The spatial pattern of photo-detected crowns was strongly correlated with the spatial pattern of fruit abundance based on direct fruit counts, and correctly showed the areas with the highest and lowest fruit abundances. The spatial density of photo-detected crowns predicted spatial variation in fruit abundance equally well as did the spatial density of ground-mapped stems. Photo-detected crown area did not yield a better prediction. Our study indicates that remote sensing of crowns can be a reliable and cost-effective method for estimating spatial variation in fruit abundance across large areas for highly distinctive canopy species. Our study is also among the few to provide empirical evidence for a positive relationship between crown exposure of forest trees and fruit production.

A review of palm remains recorded at archaeological sites throughout the New World is presented. Remains have been found at 130 sites from the southern United States to southern Uruguay. They are of four kinds: carbonized or dry endocarps or seeds, phytoliths, pollen, and implements. Twenty-nine genera and at least 50 species of palms (i.e., about 9% of all American species) have been recorded. The oldest record dates back to 14,700b.p. for carbonized endocarp fragments of an unidentified palm in Rondonia, Brazil. The use of palms, as recorded from remains, was particularly widespread after 9000b.p. The predominant remains are endocarps ofAcrocomia, Attalea s.l.,Astrocaryum, Bactris, Syagrus, Elaeis, andOenocarpus, all of which are important sources of edible oils or edible fruits and are still widely used by aboriginal peoples. The review supports the hypothesis that human groups have played an important role in the dispersal of some palm species in the neotropics. Humanaided dispersal ofAcrocomia aculeata from South America into Central America, and ofOenocarpus bataua from northwestern Amazonia to other areas, is postulated. Archaeological remains support the hypothesis that pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) was domesticated in the inter-Andean valleys or on the adjacent Pacific lowlands of Colombia and later introduced into the Amazon Basin.

Large-seeded plant species tend to be restricted to late-seral and mature forests, yet the reason for this habitat specificity is often not understood. The typical absence of these species from younger forests may be due to either their ineffective seed dispersal to early-seral habitats or postdispersal factors such as life history traits and physical and biotic variables, or both. Two large-seeded palm species, Iriartea deltoidea and Astrocaryum murumuru var. javarense, were used to experimentally evaluate the role of postdispersal limitation by testing whether the species exhibit differential seedling survivorship in forest stands of different ages. Under natural conditions, both palm species are largely absent from early- and mid-seral floodplain forest but are common in late-seral and mature forest. Iriartea seedlings and juveniles are found occasionally in early- and mid-seral forest, whereas Astrocaryum are almost never found there. To assess the degree to which postdispersal factors could account for these patterns, seeds of the two palm species were transplanted into four zones in the successional floodplain forest of Manu National Park, Peru. Three experiments quantifying seedling establishment and survivorship were carried out : a 3-yr experiment using Iriartea, in which flooding during the 1st yr was lower than average (Iriartea Dry Experiment) ; a 1-yr experiment using Iriartea, in which flooding during the 1st yr was higher than average (Iriartea Wet Experiment) ; and a 2-yr experiment using Astrocaryum, in which flooding during the 1st yr was also higher than average (Astrocaryum Wet Experiment). For each experiment, four or five plots, each containing 75 seeds, were placed in each of four zones from early to late succession. The entire design was replicated in two successional transects that were separated by 6 km. Seedling survivorship of Astrocayum was highest in the late-seral zones of both transects, which corresponded closely to its restricted natural distribution. Hence, postdispersal limitations, perhaps in conjunction with restricted seed dispersal, apparently contributed heavily to the general absence of Astrocaryum from the early- and mid-seral floodplain forests. Flooding did not appear to influence Astrocaryum seedling survivorship. Postdispersal factors also seemed to influence strongly Iriartea establishment, as evidenced by the significant variation in seedling survivorship across seral zones and between transects. Moreover, in the Iriartea Dry Experiment, seedling survivorship was negatively correlated with level of flooding. During the Iriartea Wet Experiment, survivorship was substantially lower in all seral zones, probably due to the heavy flooding. Thus, flooding, as a postdispersal factor, appeared to play a major role in shaping the natural distribution of Iriartea in the successional floodplain forests. Because seedling survivorship in one mid-seral zone was substantially higher than would be predicted from the natural Iriartea seedling density, results from transplant experiments also suggest that limited seed dispersal may contribute to this palm's early-seral distribution. For Iriartea, seed dispersal limitation may play a role complementary to that of flooding. In Amazonian primary-successional floodplain forest, the habitat specificity of at least one, and perhaps two, large-seeded species appears to result from both dispersal limitation and postdispersal limitation factors.

Astrocaryum chambira Burret is native to the western parts of the Amazon basin where indigenous people use it as a source of fiber. Its use among four different indigenous groups in Ecuador is described here. They extract fibers from the pinnae, mostly of the young leaves. Both men and women twist the fibers into strings in their homes after hunting and work in the fields. The main items produced are woven hammocks, bags, and nets. These products represent the main source of cash income for many indigenous people. The highest value for their products is obtained from sale directly to tourists. The commercial use ofA. chambira can possibly be increased in extractivism along with better marketing. The variety of ways this palm is used also makes it a valuable species for agroforestry.

Detailed distribution of Astrocaryum sect. Huicungo (Arecaceae) in Peru is presented and discussed. Twelve out of the 15 species that compose this section are found in the Peruvian territory from North to South in the eastern Andean foothills and western Amazonian lowlands. All these species have a parapatric distribution, except for Astrocaryum macrocalyx and A. urostachys, which share a very limited area. Limits of distribution areas may be related to geographical, geomorphological and ecological barriers (river, geological rising, soil drainage). In some cases, however, the contact between species is almost contiguous; no natural barrier could be detected in the field.

This is the first study to investigate whether scatter-hoarding behavior, a conditional mutualism, can be disrupted by forest fragmentation. We examined whether acouchies (Myoprocta acouchy, Rodentia) and agoutis (Dasyprocta leporina, Rodentia) changed scatter-hoarding behavior toward seeds of Astrocaryum aculeatum (Arecaceae) as a consequence of a decrease in forest-patch area. Our study was conducted at the 30-year-old Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, in central Amazon, Brazil. We tested whether forest size affected the number of Astrocaryum seeds removed and scatter-hoarded (and likely dispersed) by acouchies and agoutis, as well as the distance that the seeds were hoarded. The study extended over three seasons: the peak of the rainy season (March-April), the transition between the rainy and the dry season (May-June), and the peak of the dry season (August-September). Our results revealed that the number of seeds removed was larger in smaller fragments, but that the percentage of seeds hoarded was much lower, and seeds eaten much higher, in 1-ha fragments. Moreover, fewer seeds were taken longer distances in fragments than in the continuous forest. Site affected the number of seeds removed and season affected the percentage of seeds hoarded: more seeds were removed from stations in one site than in two others, and hoarding was more important in April and September than in June. Our study reveals that scatter-hoarding behavior is affected by forest fragmentation, with the most important disruption in very small fragments. Fragmentation converts a largely mutualistic relationship between the rodents and this palm in large forest patches into seed predation in small fragments.

Kahn, F. and Mejia, K., 1990. Palm communities in wetland forest ecosystems of Peruvian Amazonia. For. Ecol. Manage., 33/34 169-179. Palm surveys in most representative wetland forest ecosystems were carried out in the lower Ucayali and upper Huallaga River valleys, in the lowland and Andean piedmont regions of Peruvian Amazonia, respectively. These ecosystems are characterized by the species association, density, and vertical distribution of their palm communities. Palms may form almost monospecific stands, e.g., Mauritia flexuosa swamps (aguajal), or multispecific communities, e.g., the seasonal swamp forests in upland valleys (bosque de quebrada) which are dominated by Euterpeprecatoria, Jessenia bataua, Mauritia flexuosa, and Socratea exorrhiza, and the forests on periodically flooded alluvial soils (restinga) dominated by some species of the genera Astrocaryum, Phytelephas, and Scheelea. Palm diversity is very low in the forests which are periodically flooded by blackwater streams (tahuampa); palm density, however, is often high with a characteristic patchy distribution due to clustered species.

Since there has been no recent reassessment of many genera (Uhl and Dransfield 1987), it is difficult to give the real number of species within a genus, or, consequently, the total number of species occurring in Amazonia. This is likely to be lower in the largest genera, such as Bactris and Astrocaryum, where the related species, which present a high morphological variability, are considered as one. This attitude was assumed by Wessels Boer (1968) with Geonoma, Skov and Balslev (1989) with Hyospathe, and Henderson (1990) with Iriartea. On the other hand, the discovery of new genera and species for Amazonia is likely to continue for as long as the whole basin area has not been thoroughly collected. Since 1987, four new species have been named and others are to be described (Borchsenius, de Granville, Glassman, Kahn, in prep.) and two genera, Aphandra and Asterogyne, are new for Amazonia. The following estimate of the number of Amazonian palm species in each genus takes into account the currently valid species’ names, the preliminary statement of Henderson’s palm flora of the Amazon basin (in prep.), and the authors’ point of view (Table 1).

RESUMENSe ha completado el iinventarlo de los géneros y especies de palmeras que crecen en Guyana Francesa por un rápido estudio de su distribución tanto en Guyana como fuera de Guyana, y de su reparto por biótopos Y zonas de altitud. Se desviva de este estudio que los géneros mejor representados en Guyana son, respectivamente, Bactris, Geonoma y Astrocaryum que incluyen, fundamentalmente, las especies del sotobosque de la selva densa. Sibien ciertas especies presentan una amplia distribución en América del Sur, otras, que hasta la fecha se presumen endémicas, tanto de las Guyanas como de la propria Guyana Francesa constituyen el testimonio de la originalidad de esta région fitogeográfica y consolidan asi la hipótesis de un refugio forestal durante los periodos más secos del Cuaternario reciente. A pesar de la reducida altitud de los relieves de Guyana (850m) ciertas palma demuestran, finalmente, ser estrictamente dependientes de estas cimas y sevuelven a encontrar, por lo general, en los relieves de Venezuela y del Norte de los Andes. SUMMARYThe inventary of genera and species of palms naturally occurring in French Guiana is followed by a brief study of their distribution in and out of French Guiana and of their repartition according to habitat and altitudinal zones. From these data, it emerges that the genera best represented in French Guiana are respectively Bactris, Geonoma and Astrocaryum, which include principally species of the understory. Some species have a wide distribution in South America while others are supposedly endemic to the Guiana or to French Guiana giving evidence of the originality of this phytogeographic region and supporting the hypothesis of a forest refugium during the dryest periods of the late Quaternary. Lastly, inspite of the relatively low altitude of the highiest reliefs (850 m), some palms are proving to be restricted to these summits and otherwise occur in the mountains of Venezuela and Northern Andes.

REDDISH Hermits (Phaethornis ruber) are small hummingbirds of the forested tropical lowlands east of the Andes and south of the Orinoco (Meyer de Schauensee, 1966: 161). Five birds mist-netted at Belem (1? 28' S, 480 27' W, altitude 13 m) weighed 2.0 to 2.5 g (average 2.24 g). I studied their nesting from 14 October 1966 to October 1967 at Belem, Brazil, in the Area de Pesquisas Ecologicas do Guama (APEG) and Mocambo Forest reserves, in the Instituto de Pesquisas e ExperimentaZa.o Agropecuarias do Norte (IPEAN). Names of forest types used and the Portuguese equivalents are: tidal swamp forest (varzea), mature upland forest (terra-firme) and second growth (capoeira). In all cases capoeira has been in mature upland situations. At Belem Phaethornis ruber is common all year in the lower levels of second growth (capoeira) where thin branches are plentiful. Isolated males call frequently from thin horizontal branches, never higher than 2.5-3.0 m. The male sits erect and wags his tail forward and backward as he squeaks a series of insectlike "pi-pi-pipipipipipi" notes, 18-20 times per minute; the first two or three notes are short and separated, the rest are run together rapidly. The bird sometimes stops calling for some seconds and flashes his tongue in and out several times during the interval. I found no singing assemblies of male hermits such as Davis (1934) describes for both the Reddish and Long-tailed Hermits (Phaethornis superciliosus). and Snow (1968) for the Little Hermit (P. Ionguemareus). Breeding season.-The monthly rainfall at Belem in the year of the study was 350 to 550 mm from January to May and 25 to 200 mm from June to December, with lows in October and November and highs in March and April. I found nests of P. ruber from June to October, from the end of the wet season to near the middle of the dry season. Pinto (1953) reports two nests in November and two others in May. The peak is in July and August with 3 and 5 nests each. Ruschi (1964) states the breeding period farther south at Corrego Engano, Espirito Santo, Brazil to be October to February. Nests.-Most of the 14 nests I found were in second growth, a few in tidal swamp forest, or mature upland forest. Figure 1 shows locations of nests in the APEG reserve. Nest 1, in the Mocambo Forest, and nest 4, in the southern end of the APEG reserve, are not shown. All 14 nests were in young palms with few leaves: 10 were in Astrocaryum mumbaca (mumbaca-I know of no, English vernaculars

Traditional palm basketry of the Ba Yei and HaMbukushu people of the Okavango delta region in Botswana was introduced in the 1970s by a missionary to the Wounaan aborigines of western Colombia, who had a related weaving technique. The African technique was quickly assimilated by the Wounaan and enriched with shapes and decoration based on their own cultural patterns. The Chocoan palm Astrocaryum standleyanum, which the Wounaan used in their traditional baskets, replaced the African Hyphaene petersiana used in Botswana. The high quality of the new basketry led to a rapid success and turned Wounaan Astrocaryum baskets into an icon among Colombian handicrafts. Market pressure led to a severe depletion of the fiber-producing palm near Indian villages in the late twentieth century, as palms were felled by the hundreds to harvest the spear leaves. Educational campaigns and the introduction of an appropriate harvest tool have subsequently reduced the impact of leaf harvest, and A. standleyanum is now protected b...

This paper addresses an important debate in Amazonian studies; namely, the scale, intensity, and nature of human modification of the forests in prehistory. Phytolith and charcoal analysis of terrestrial soils underneath mature tierra firme (nonflooded, nonriverine) forests in the remote Medio Putumayo-Algodón watersheds, northeastern Peru, provide a vegetation and fire history spanning at least the past 5,000 y. A tree inventory carried out in the region enables calibration of ancient phytolith records with standing vegetation and estimates of palm species densities on the landscape through time. Phytolith records show no evidence for forest clearing or agriculture with major annual seed and root crops. Frequencies of important economic palms such as Oenocarpus, Euterpe, Bactris, and Astrocaryum spp., some of which contain hyperdominant species in the modern flora, do not increase through prehistoric time. This indicates pre-Columbian occupations, if documented in the region with future research, did not significantly increase the abundance of those species through management or cultivation. Phytoliths from other arboreal and woody species similarly reflect a stable forest structure and diversity throughout the records. Charcoal 14C dates evidence local forest burning between ca. 2,800 and 1,400 y ago. Our data support previous research indicating that considerable areas of some Amazonian tierra firme forests were not significantly impacted by human activities during the prehistoric era. Rather, it appears that over the last 5,000 y, indigenous populations in this region coexisted with, and helped maintain, large expanses of relatively unmodified forest, as they continue to do today.