ACA-Bolivia Trains College Students to Create Brazil Nut Forest Database

July 22, 2009

Biology majors at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia have input productivity and physical data into ACA’s Brazil nut tree database for thousands of Brazil nut trees located in northern Bolivia, near Madidi National Park.

These enthusiastic interns were trained by ACA-Bolivia staff members Javier Calderón and Abraham Poma to use geographic information systems (GIS) and related digital databases to create multi-layered resource maps. Participants included Ruth Cory, Oswaldo Palabral, Mariela Escobar, Claudia Piza, Aymara Duran, and Variozka Azenas.

ACA-Bolivia has collected data on 115,000 Brazil nut trees in the Takana indigenous land claim area since 2006. Data collected include, among others: number of trees, production rate, circumference, presence or absence of vines, quality of understory, and drainage.  These data are fed into the Brazil nut tree database for ACA-Bolivia’s project area including the four Takana communities of Puerto Pérez, Las Mercedes, Toromonas, and El Tigre, north of Madidi.