PERU – Amazon Basin

In 1993, we began working with Dr. José Cabanillas, a Peruvian medical doctor who had been raised in a family of traditional healers and was deeply devoted to the preservation of traditional medicine.

Dr. Cabanillas purchased over a thousand hectares of rainforest to establish a biological research station so that the land could be protected and preserved while being made available for research and investigation of its biodiversity.

The Isula Biological Preserve borders an isolated lake roughly 4 hours north of Iquitos, in the Amazon basin of Peru. There are seven different ecological zones in the preserve, and it is literally one of the most species diverse areas left on Earth.

Several ethnobotanists and a broad variety of other doctors, practitioners and scientists have visited and done research at the ISULA preserve over the years. Several ecotours have been hosted at the Isula Preserve, a wonderful place to experience Nature in one of her most abundant displays of life.

The EthnoMedicine Preservation Project helped expand the preserve to nearly 6,000 acres and provided developmental support along the way.

For three years, EMPP led groups of 15-22 individuals to the Isula Preserve to help bring focus to the preservation of the medicinal plant knowledge of the indigenous cultures in this uniquely diverse region.