The Voyage Begins

“Papyrus was the enemy of oblivion.” Cassiodorus 530AD

The goal.

Why am I going on this trip?

In Africa, papyrus swamps are disappearing at a fast rate. In a few places swamp restoration has begun, but more effort is needed.

Papyrus is grown and conserved in several places in the Mideast where papyrus is a money maker -- it is used to make paper for tourists and it attracts birds by the millions so it's good for tourism as well. And more recently it is being considered as a filter for sewage and pollutants on the Nile and Jordan Rivers.

My intention on this trip will be to see if the techniques used in papyrus plantations in the Mideast might provide answers to the problems now faced in Africa. I’ll be reporting back on my adventures and new experiences on this blog, so keep tuned.

(More info about papyrus can be found on my website: http://www.fieldofreeds.com/ my other blog: http://tiny.cc/reed and on Twitter http://twitter.com/BwanaPapyrus)

Background - Papyrus in the Mideast

My interest in papyrus swamps dates back to the 70’s when I went out to Africa to study the swamps. I knew that the plant I was to study was the same as that used by the ancient Egyptians to make paper, but as I passed through Egypt I found papyrus was long gone, it had vanished from the Egyptian Nile at the end of the First Millennium. To the Saracens then in charge, it was all a matter of business, to them papyrus was hardly missed, after all, hadn’t they also introduced Chinese laid paper to the world? a product that was much easier to manufacture than papyrus paper and which was not dependant on a single species. The swamps of Egypt were converted to farms and life went on. When someone next looked around, papyrus had disappeared from Egypt. It wasn’t until the Victorian explorers went trudging through the swamps of Eastern and Central Africa that they found papyrus again. It was then the Victorian explorers began to understand that not only was papyrus alive and well, but they often had to fight their way through it in order to survive.

Papyrus is known to exist in two other areas of the world outside of Africa. It survives as small papyrus swamps on a river in Sicily where it is considered a novelty, and it also grows in the Jordan Valley, which is itself an extension of the African Rift Valley. For many years a swamp of 15,500 acres, or 24.3 square miles, prospered along the upper reaches of the Jordan River. It was called the Huleh Swamp. It was dominated by papyrus and provided a living for local Bedouins who made mats from the stems (to see a short video inside this swamp go to: http://bit.ly/6OiHzI )

In the 1950’s Huleh Swamp was cleared in order to make way for settlers coming from post-War Europe to Israel. The clearance resulted in massive ecological damage which I saw when I arrived in Israel early in my career as a swamp ecologist in 1978. It created an impression that has never left me.

Later this disaster was reversed and a significant part of the ecosystem was recovered. Now comes the good news the restored swamp (now called the Huleh Valley Nature Preserve), which is almost exclusively a papyrus ecosystem, is considered an ecological miracle. The rejuvenated swamp attracts millions of birds from Europe and N. America that pass through or overwinter there before going on to Africa. This in turn attracts hundreds of thousands of birdwatching tourists. As a result, the water quality in the Jordan River has improved and the income from tourism has significantly increased.

I will also tour Cairo where papyrus is grown in small plantations in the Nile. The stems are used for making papyrus paper for the tourist market, but it may also be possible to use the papyrus plants as filters for pollution. I will also briefly pass through the ancient Roman city of Jerash in Jordan where papyrus may have grown in ancient times.

© Copyright 2009 John J. Gaudet, All Rights Reserved