Over the course of those centuries, the Quechua have discovered that many of the plants endemic to their harsh but beautiful region have curative properties, such as the aromatic rica rica, which settles an upset stomach, or chinchircoma, which can help one ward off a cold. A group of women in San Agustín is attempting to capitalize on their ethnobotanical heritage by harvesting those plants and packaging them as medicinal teas. Working out of a local women's center, and with support from the GEF Small Grants Program, they have formed a corporation called Productos Naturales San Agustín (PRONASA), to produce and market a variety of teas.
About 800 people live in the town of San Agustín, where thatched adobe houses line tidy, unpaved Streets. Though poor, the community is well organized and enjoys such services as a clinic, elementary and high schools, a public phone, and a generator that supplies electricity for several hours a night. Another 800 people live in tiny hamlets scattered around the surrounding countryside, where herds of sheep and llamas graze amidst the rocks and cliffs, and the hillsides are marked with square plots of quinua.
"When I was a little girl, we didn't know what tea was. We only drank the herbs that grow in this zone," said Fabiana Huanca, the president of PRONASA. She explained that the medicinal properties of the local plants is common knowledge in the area, and that everyone collects them for their own use. "Our grandmothers taught us which plants were which, and what each one was a remedy for."
"Before, we didn't have a health post," added PRONASA general manager Concepción Salvatierra, "So the people cured themselves with these herbs."
The two women explained that before they launched their project, the only attempts by local people to sell the herbs was to take bundles to indigenous markets to barter for corn and other goods. It was only after seeing some of those same herbs packaged as teas in Chile that the women of San Agustín began to discuss the possibility of commercializing them. They solicited the help of a local agronomist, Hugo Bautista, who eventually helped them write the proposal for the Small Grant Program.
Despite the propitious discovery they made while in Chile, the need to travel to that nearby nation for work has long been a symptom of the community's precarious financial state. San Agustín´s desert-like environment, dearth of industry and isolation - seven hours by a once-weekly bus from the nearest city, Uyuni - have conspired to keep nearly 95 percent of its citizens below the poverty line. The lack of income options has obliged the town's women to migrate to Chile for work as household servants for periods of one to six months. Since the men are unable to get Chilean work permits, they usually remain in San Agustín, where they take care of the farms and children
Though hardly average, Concepción Salvatierra has shared the hardships of her neighbors. For a decade, she said good-bye to her husband and two daughters every year, and spent several months working as a maid for a monthly wage of just over $100. "It was tough," she said, even though her Chilean employers were nice and the household work was easier than at home, since they had washing machines and other amenities. "The hard thing was to be so far from my family."
Concepción managed to break out of the migrant work rut thanks to her mother, who gave her the money to study primary education for three years in Uyuni. After years of cleaning the homes of strangers, cooking their meals, and washing their clothes and dishes, Concepción now works as a first grade teacher at San Agusín´s elementary school. When the school day is done, she heads for PRONASA, where she works until dinnertime. Her position as general manager is a volunteer one; in fact, none of the corporation's members, who dedicate about 20 hours a week to the project, have earned anything thus far. Nevertheless, Concepción believes PRONASA will eventually provide her and the other women with enough income that they will no longer need to migrate to Chile.
"All the women in the corporation are content," she said. "Even though we haven't earned anything yet, we know that we will start earning soon."
Not every woman in San Agustín shares her conviction. Though more than 40 women attended the project's initial workshops, only 22 were willing, or able, to pay the $50 fee to join the corporation - a fee the group recently raised to $100, to reflect the labor they've invested. Though only two men have been allowed to join PRONASA, which is essentially a women's cooperative, Concepción pointed out that membership is extended to spouses and children, which brings the number of direct beneficiaries to about 80. Currently the profit per box of tea is a mere 20 cents US, but she explained that they intend to more than double that next year through a slight price increase and decrease in production costs. They also plan to improve their distribution network, which is currently limited to the offices of the UNDP and several NGOs in La Paz.
The harvesting of wild plants for sale may seem contrary to the GEF's goal of preserving biodiversity, but according to the Small Grant Program's national coordinator, Rubén Salas, that is exactly the criterion for which the project was approved. He said that the more benefits the community receives from the medicinal plants, the more likely they will be to protect the areas in which they grow.
"The fact that the women are taking advantage of this resource can actually insure its survival," he said. "We can't turn every wild area into a national park, which is why we have to find other ways of promoting conservation."
The cooperative's members insist that their exploitation is sustainable - they only harvest in certain areas, cut only small portions from any plant, and do most of the cutting during the rainy months, when the plants recover more quickly. According to Concepción, whose surname, Salvatierra, translates as 'Earthsaver,' if demand for the teas ever outpaces PRONASA's ability to supply them in a sustainable manner, they will simply begin buying herbs from other communities in the region, and thus increase the harvest area.
Rubén Salas explained that a recently approved second phase of financing for the project includes an environmental study to insure the sustainability of harvesting methods. Phase two will also finance the purchase of a second-hand teabag press - the women now have to send the sifted herbs to La Paz to be bagged - as well as the prerequisites for health ministry and ecological certification of the teas.
Such concepts as sustainable development and ecological certification may be new enough to be fashionable, but the knowledge that the medicinal plant project is grounded in has roots that stretch back to pre-Columbian times. Though every house in San Agusín it topped with a tiny cross, and town's tallest structure is the church bell tower, the women of PRONASA give thanks for the medicinal plants to Pachamama, or 'Mother Earth', who has provided for their people since the time of the Incas.
"Pachamama gives us the raw materials," said Concepción. "She gives us the quinua. She gives us the llama. She gives us the medicinal plants."
Concepción explained that the every August the women of San Agustín hold sunrise ceremonies for the Virgin Pachamama - an Incan/Roman Catholic hybrid that could well be the patron saint of PRONASA. Though created as a legal entity, PRONASA functions more as a sisterhood. In addition to regular meetings, and the hours they spend together harvesting and packaging the teas, the members hold celebrations every month or two during which they always pour a bit of beer onto the ground before drinking, as an offering to Pachamama.
"The group is very united," noted Concepción, who explained that in addition to being business partners, the members of PRONASA are friends who help each other out in a variety of ways.
Though nearly every step of the tea-making process provides opportunities for socializing, the harvesting trips seem especially festive. When they head into the countryside to gather herbs, just as their grandmothers and great grandmothers did, the women of San Agustín strengthen their ties to both nature and their culture.
One of their favorite places for gathering medicinal plants is Buena Vista - a spectacular box canyon in the mountains high above town. The high cliffs that enclose Buena Vista create a less arid climate than in most of the region, which results in a more robust vegetation. Thick bushes stand amidst strange rock formations, and the women have to climb over and around boulders to ascend the precipitous terrain. To the east stands the conical Calacatín Volcano, while to the west tower the high beige cliffs, stained here and there with splotches of white guano, which mark the nests of Andean condors. The sound of the wind is punctuated by snippets of Quechua and laughter as the women move from plant to plant, placing a few handfuls of clippings from each one into their large bags and baskets.
"We now work with a lot of enthusiasm," said Fabiana Huanca, as she clipped bits of foliage from a chinchircoma bush. "We don't want to go back to Chile any more."
Article by: David Dudenhoefer