As Linda Alvarado, a young Indigenous Yine leader, travels through the forest in the depths of the Peruvian Amazon, she collects clusters of murumuru seeds. These honeycomb-shaped structures fall from the Astrocaryum murumuru palms that reach heights of up to 10 meters (33 feet). Alvarado and her “sisters,” what she calls the other women from […]
  • Women from the Yine Indigenous community in Peru are working to harvest and process the seeds of the murumuru, a native Amazonian palm tree.
  • The community of Monte Salvado, where many Yine people live, borders the Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve and Alto Purús National Park, two areas that are often traversed by Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.
  • Community leaders warn that illegal loggers have been destroying the forests of these isolated communities, forcing them to travel to the Yine people’s communal lands to seek food and help.
  • Families in Monte Salvado earn their income through the sustainable collection and processing of Brazil nuts and murumuru seeds, and by selling handicrafts made from the seeds.

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  • Jim East@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Interesting that the article doesn’t mention the fact that the murumuru fruits are edible… But then, Astrocaryum murumuru is not even native to the area that the article is about, so it’s probably another species entirely that these women collect.