These islands become important sources of medicinal and edible plants, as well as places of rest. Even vines that produce drinkable water are transplanted here. The eating habits of deer and tapir are well-known to the Indians, and their favourite foods are propagated in forest islands. In this sense, forest islands must be viewed as both agroforestry plots and hunting reserves. These groups can include dozens of species and require complex patterns of cultivation.
Indian fields thrive on diversity within the plots.
This diversity is quite ordered to the Indian eye, with careful matchings between plant varieties and micro-environmental conditions. Changes must begin by treating indigenous and traditional peoples not as problems in development to be overcome or planned for, but rather as active participants, indeed leaders, whose ideas are integrated into new, more socially and ecologically sustainable strategies of change. If indigenous experience were taken seriously by modern scientists, they would find that the Indians are a diligent, intelligent and practical people who have adapted successfully for thousands of years in the Amazon, and would participate, with the respect and esteem they deserve, in the construction of a modern Brazil. Darrell Addison Posey is the Director of The Working Group on Traditional Resource Rights, Oxford.