Baltimori

Located on the banks of the Tambopata River some seven hours by motorized canoe (peque peque) from Puerto Maldonado, the community of Baltimori is the last significant farming population before the jungle gives way to wilderness dotted only by a few gold settlements and minor camps.  Rather than a village proper, Baltimori is more a loose assemblage of individually owned properties worked by some 25 families.  Most community members are separated by a half-mile or more from their closest neighbors, and the river is the highway that connects them all.  Because of its remote location and close proximity to the extensive Tambopata Candamo Reserve, the area is remarkably intact and is still home to healthy animal populations and relatively untouched forests.

Camino Verde’s center in Baltimori is immediately adjacent to the community land where the village sports pitch, health post, and assembly house are found.  Our center consists of 32 hectares (roughly 80 acres) of forest, more than half of which is primary (virgin) jungle, the rest being secondary forests left behind by the slash-and-burn agricultural activities of previous owners.  It is our commitment to strictly conserve the virgin forest in our care while reforesting only those areas that have been destroyed by past farming.  We are also committed to limiting the areas cultivated for our own food as much as possible, utilizing land resources with honor and respect for native ecosystems and maximizing the space available for our “bank” of trees (see below).

Our reforestation efforts to date (as of October, 2008) have involved the installation of some 500 fruit and timber trees representing 80 species over an intensively planted 3 hectare area (7 acres).  It is our hope to plant 500-1000 more trees each year for the next five years.  The resulting plantations, managed using agroforestry techniques and permaculture principles, stand as Camino Verde’s “Living Seed Bank,” a resource for genetic preservation of useful and endangered trees to serve as a seed source for future projects and future generations.

The Baltimori center includes housing for permanent staff, including our permanent Grounds Manager, and rustic lodgings for up to five visitors.  It is our goal to grow all the food for staff and visitors on the land itself, trading with our neighbors in Baltimori to fill in the few remaining dietary gaps.  In addition to our trees, we are currently growing over a dozen staple food crops and green manure/cover crops.  Once our countless fruit trees come into production, we plan to offer surplus to local humanitarian efforts in support of an orphanage and a home for the elderly in Puerto Maldonado.  In the meantime Baltimori continues to be a true paradise where howler monkeys wake us at dawn and birds’ nests quickly invade the trees we plant.