Sustainable Ayahuasca Production

The Avatar Centre is highly committed to the sustainable harvest of all of the medicinal plants we work with. This means consciously planting 20 Ayahuasca vines for every 1 vine we harvest. In addition, we are always encouraging the local people to do the same, and have been known to offer those in the area with great respect for the plant, full sacks on vine for planting, as a partnership in guarding the future sustainability of the plant in our region. The plant has brought so many gifts to the people in the Amazon, and for many has been regarded as their ancestor...so highly integrated into the very identity of the native peoples. Due to increased tourism, and online exploitation of the plant, many of the native shamans who have worked their entire lives with this medicine, are now fearing for the plant's future in the region. As there are many in their own communities, raised in poverty, the prospect of financial gain pushes many to do things their ancestors would have shunned them against. As a result, the impacts of strip harvesting without replanting has been catastrophic to the wild supply surrounding populated areas. However, nowadays there seem to be enough people with foresight preparing for the future, and it is hugely common for everyone with land to have at least one vine planted on their property. At The Avatar Centre we have planted close to 300 vines on the centre's grounds just between 2014-2017, and our goal is to acquire new land in the coming years to plant hundreds more, in addition to protecting more old growth forest, and the natural resources therein from the growing threat of deforestation, massive mono-culture farming and fossil fuel extraction.