Approximations to biocultural conservation of plants and birds in Puerto Saavedra, Chile: The Mapuche perspective

Background/Question/Methods

Today, severe losses of biological and cultural diversity associated with rapid global development and homogenization, have triggered recent biocultural conservation efforts to raise awareness about ethical and sustainability implications for preserving the interrelated diversity of life, cultures, and languages within complex socio-ecological systems. In this context, indigenous communities communicate with and comprehend their regional ecosystems and biotic communities, and offer options for addressing global change and sustainability. Hence, indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is essential for (a) empirically approaching research on biocultural diversity, and (b) contributing to biocultural conservation. In Puerto Saavedra, in the Province of Cautin in Chile’s Ninth Administrative Region (“Araucania”), we collaborated with members of a Mapuche indigenous group, the Lafkenche (“people of the sea”), that inhabit the Pacific coastal region of southwestern Chile. Here, Mapuche-Lafkenche poet, artist and actor, Lorenzo Aillapan, possesses the gift of communicating with birds, and is identified by the Mapuche as Üñümche, or bird-man. Victoria Castro and Ricardo Rozzi have collaborated with Lorenzo Aillapan for a decade. In January 2012, Betsabé Castro and Victoria Castro spent a week submerged in the cultural landscape and TEK of Lorenzo Aillapan, while exploring the Lafkenche habitats, culture, and history, and the interrelationships among plants, birds and humans in Mapuche worldview. 

Results/Conclusions

First, this is a qualitative study, therefore experimental data consists of the wise teachings that Lorenzo shared with us. Second, this work suggests that in the attempt of understanding biocultural diversity and conservation one has to combine traditional ecological knowledge and conventional science, as well as other disciplines like ethics and philosophy. Third, preliminaries assessments point out the following conclusions: 1.) The Üñümche is chosen to promote the renascence of wisdom through the tetralogy of knowledge (the union of Nature, humans, language and divinity). 2.) Mapuche’s have the duty to spread their culture, defend their land and return to their language. If their language comes to an end, life as they know it will perish as well. 3.) Birds have an inseparable bond with Nature, especially with plants. They live, feed and reproduce in Nature as they help maintain the cycle of life. 4.) Mapuches witness that ecosystems are being destroyed by humans worldwide and they believe it should be our duty to oppose this. Lorenzo’s finals words were: “Somos seres vivientes, estamos vivos y merecemos seguir viviendo” – “We are living beings, we are alive and we deserve to continue living”