Pubdate: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Page: A - 6 Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Michael Ceaser, Chronicle Foreign Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia COLOMBIA'S COFAN STILL FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL Bogota, Colombia -- Although he is only 21, Camilo Yoge has seen his indigenous tribe lose its culture, territory and traditions. Yoge, a member of the Cofan tribe, has seen farmers, ranchers and oilmen invade his ancestral lands to plant illegal coca crops, raise cattle and search for oil. He has seen many young Cofan take to wearing Western-style clothes, listening to popular music and abandoning their native language for Spanish. "We're losing out traditional dress, our environment," lamented Yoge, who is studying to become a taita, or shaman. "We are no longer free in our own territory." To help the Cofan, who number only about 2,600 people between Colombia and Ecuador, preserve their traditions, the Colombian government last month created the Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plants Sanctuary to protect the plants the Cofan depend on for medicinal and spiritual purposes. Officials in Colombia say the reserve is the only national park in the world created for that reason. Sustaining natural resources "Sustainable use will permit us to preserve the natural resources," said National Parks Director Julia Miranda Londono. The idea for the reserve came after Cofan leaders met in 2003 with the national organization of indigenous shaman to search for an unpopulated region they could use to preserve their medicinal plants. They took the proposal to national park authorities, who spent several years mapping out a 25,000-acre reserve. The Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Plants Sanctuary, whose name means "our territory" in the Cofan language, ranges in elevation from 2,300 feet to nearly 10,000 feet above sea level in the southwestern departments of Narino and Putumayo - about a two-hour drive from Cofan territory, where much of the vegetation has been destroyed by farmers, ranchers and oilmen. With few options available for earning money, park officials say many Cofan have resorted to harvesting coca leaf, the base ingredient for cocaine, further eroding their traditions. Even traditional palm fronds, which are now hard to find, have been replaced by tin when building roofs for their homes. "We live from nature, that's where our energy comes from," said Louis Octavio Criollo, 39, a Cofan who is also training to become a taita. "But when (the forest) is cut down, all of that is lost." A wealth of biodiversity Aside from spiritual value, the new park's elevation range has abundant biodiversity, parks officials say, including about 400 bird varieties, numerous reptiles, and such rare species as chameleons, jaguars and Andean spectacled bears. Cofan elders have also identified nearly 100 plant species used for medicinal and religious purposes. Two of the most important plants are yoco (Paullinia yoco), a vine used against fatigue and as a laxative and to prevent malaria, and yage, a mildly hallucinogenic vine used in traditional rites, which has become popular with outsiders who often harvest the plant for sale. Other plants are used to treat inflammations, kidney ailments and rheumatism. Indigenous Colombians, who belong to dozens of different ethnic groups, make up about 2 percent of the nation's population of 45 million. Like the Cofan, many have suffered the impact of disease, deforestation, and violence from the nation's more than 4-decade-old civil war. More sanctuaries needed Lilliana Madrigal, vice president of programs for the Amazon Conservation Team, based in Virginia, which helped plan the new park, predicts that the reserve will inspire the creation of protected areas in other nations. "It's a huge precedent for countries worldwide," she said. "I think that we're going to be seeing a lot of other sanctuaries or biological reserves for the same purpose." In fact, Colombian park officials say they are already planning to convert a 2.9-million-acre indigenous reserve into a national park to protect areas important to the creation myths of several indigenous groups living there. Luciano Mutumbajoy, a member of the nearby Inga indigenous people and a leader of Colombia's traditional medical practitioners, helped create the yet-to-be named park "If our medicine is finished, the life and existence of the indigenous people will end," he said. About the Cofan Before the Spanish conquest, the Cofan numbered between 15,000 and 20,000. But smallpox, whooping cough and measles reduced the population to about 2,600 today spread between southern Colombia and northeast Ecuador. In Ecuador, their ancestral lands have been polluted mainly by oil companies. In Colombia, Cofan lands have been invaded by cattle ranchers, coca farmers and oil companies. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake