The main aim of this course is to introduce the student to the dynamics of ethnobotanical research in a determinate area of the north Peruvian Amazon rainforest, about 160 miles west from the city of Iquitos, near the encounter of the Tigre river with the Marañón river. It is a Cocama indigenous area but with also non-Amazonian indigenous settlements: “ribereños” and “colonos”. The place it is a lodge of an eco-tourism organization, JUNGLEX.

This project is directed by Fernando Roca SJ, Doctor in Social Anthropology and Ethnology, Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France.

Fernando Roca

Fernando Roca Alcázar, PhD in Antropology, EHSS in Paris. Dr. Roca is an specialist in ethnobiology-ethnobotany and has also a master degree in Theology. Nowadays, he is the botanical-ethnobotanical Coordinator of the PUCP Gardens, member of the Instituto de Estudios Ambientales (IDEA) and Associated Profesor in the Comunications Departement of the PUCP. He is a par time professor at the Universidad del Pacífico. He has worked for more than 15 years in the Alto Marañon, in the northwestern peruvian Amazonie, but he has also field experiences in Brasil and Mexico. As a professional, he worked in France, Chile, Brasil, EEUU and Mexico.