Indigenous identity and environmental governance in Guyana, South America

Mistry, Jayalaxshmi; Berardi, Andrea; Tschirhart, Céline; Bignante, Elisa; Haynes, Lakeram; Benjamin, Ryan; Albert, Grace; Xavier, Rebecca; Jafferally, Deirdre; Ville, Géraud de

doi:10.1177/1474474014560998

Cited by 17 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Esas representaciones pueden apreciarse en algunos casos en actividades tradicionales cotidianas (e.g. agricultura, artesanía, arte textil, medicina tradicional, alimentos típicos, fiestas, danzas, rituales y tradición oral) elementos que conforman el patrimonio cultural en las comunidades indígenas (Mistry et al, 2015). Patrimonio que se integra al desarrollo de tecnologías y conocimientos fundamentales para la obtención de la base alimenticia, fue además, punto de partida de las civilizaciones con agricultura intensiva de altos rendimientos y poca mano de obra pese a no contar con herramientas de metal, la rueda, la tracción animal o arado (Bonfil 1987;Hernández, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Maíz: Sustento de vida en la cultura Teenek. Comunidad Tamaletom, Tancanhuitz, S.L.P. México

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Resumen:Mediante un largo proceso de experimentación las culturas mesoamericanas inventaron la agricultura, logrando domesticar entre otras plantas, al maíz, grano que en la actualidad es uno de los más importantes a nivel mundial por sus diversos usos: alimenticio, industrial y farmacéutico. Como alimento, ocupa un lugar culturalmente importante en diversos pueblos de América. En el presente trabajo se realizó un análisis sobre las complejas relaciones entre plantas, los distintos patrimonios de conocimiento, tecnología, costumbres y las formas de representación social ligadas al cultivo de esta gramínea en la comunidad Teenek de Tamaletom, municipio de Tancanhuitz, San Luis Potosí, México. A manera de cierre se concluye que en los Teenek se observa claramente una compleja relación entre el cultivo del maíz y los aspectos alimentarios, espirituales, míticos, religiosos y económico-sociales. Dicha cultura se ha resistido a la adopción de paquetes tecnológicos de la revolución verde y continúan preservando prácticas agrícolas tradicionales como la milpa (cultivos asociados) que no causan un alto impacto en el medio natural del que dependen y respetan, fortaleciendo la identidad y las prácticas de solidaridad comunitaria. other plants, corn, a grain that is currently one of the most important in the world due to its diverse food, industrial and pharmaceutical uses. As food, it holds a culturally important place among diverse peoples in the Americas. In this study an analysis was made of the complex relationships between plants, the different heritages of knowledge, technology, and customs, and the forms of social representation linked to the cultivation of this grain in the Teenek community of Tamaletom, municipality of Tancanhuitz, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. In conclusion, it can be clearly seen that in the Teenek community there is a complex relationship between corn cultivation and food, spiritual, mythical, religious and socioeconomic aspects. This culture has resisted the adoption of "Green revolution" technology packages and continues to preserve traditional agricultural practices such as "milpa" (associate crops) that do not cause a high impact on the natural environment on which they depend and respect, strengthening the identity and practices of community solidarity.

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Section: Introductionunclassified

Maíz: Sustento de vida en la cultura Teenek. Comunidad Tamaletom, Tancanhuitz, S.L.P. México

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“…The identification of strategies under each system viability category between the three communities is analysed and discussed in Berardi et al (2013b) and Mistry et al (2015a). We found that there were similarities between the communities in terms of existence strategies (all three communities felt that access to land and waterways was a fundamental prerequisite for their continued existence), ideal performance (all three communities had practices that promoted the efficient use of titled land), flexibility strategies (all three communities aspired to the development of more options for food and health security), resistance strategies (all three communities had practices that kept traditions alive and protected the environment), adaptability strategies (all three communities used nonindigenous technologies in ways that significantly improved their well-being), and coexistence strategies (all three communities sought effective partnerships at regional, national, and international levels).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through in-depth discussions, the representations of viability strategies and their relationships were validated and refined where necessary, and then presented back to the three villages in the form of revised spray diagrams for final agreement and comments. A detailed analysis of the visual representations in the PP and PV are provided in Mistry et al (2015a).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss2/art42/ One of the criteria agreed upon was whether a current community strategy would be fit for the future. This was important because in their films and photostories all the communities emphasized the importance of maintaining their environment and culture for future generations (Mistry et al 2015a). A participatory exploration of future scenarios was carried out with the communities over a six-month period; there is no scope to describe the process in detail here, but a full critical evaluation of the process and outcomes is provided in Mistry et al (2014).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Community owned solutions: identifying local best practices for social-ecological sustainability

Mistry¹,

Berardi²,

Tschirhart³

et al. 2016

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ABSTRACT. Policies and actions that come from higher scale structures, such as international bodies and national governments, are not always compatible with the realities and perspectives of smaller scale units including indigenous communities. Yet, it is at this local social-ecological scale that mechanisms and solutions for dealing with unpredictability and change can be increasingly seen emerging from across the world. Although there is a large body of knowledge specifying the conditions necessary to promote local governance of natural resources, there is a parallel need to develop practical methods for operationalizing the evaluation of local social-ecological systems. In this paper, we report on a systemic, participatory, and visual approach for engaging local communities in an exploration of their own social-ecological system. Working with indigenous communities of the North Rupununi, Guyana, this involved using participatory video and photography within a system viability framework to enable local participants to analyze their own situation by defining indicators of successful strategies that were meaningful to them. Participatory multicriteria analysis was then used to arrive at a short list of best practice strategies. We present six best practices and show how they are intimately linked through the themes of indigenous knowledge, local governance and values, and partnerships and networks. We highlight how developing shared narratives of community owned solutions can help communities to plan governance and management of land and resource systems, while reinforcing sustainable practices by discussing and showcasing them within communities, and by engendering a sense of pride in local solutions.

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“…In addition, indigenous community researchers carried out and led all field-related activities, including community engagement, PV and PP recordings, and sharing. Reporting and reflection on all these approaches are presented elsewhere (see Berardi et al 2013b, 2015a. We present results only from Stage 4, the final phase of the project involving CP2PKE between communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from one another: evaluating the impact of horizontal knowledge exchange for environmental management and governance

Tschirhart¹,

Mistry²,

Berardi³

et al. 2016

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. 2016. Learning from one another: evaluating the impact of horizontal knowledge exchange for environmental management and governance. Ecology and Society 21 (2) ABSTRACT. There is increasing advocacy for inclusive community-based approaches to environmental management, and growing evidence that involving communities improves the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Most community-based approaches rely on partnerships and knowledge exchange between communities, civil society organizations, and professionals such as practitioners and/or scientists. However, few models have actively integrated more horizontal knowledge exchange from community to community. We reflect on the transferability of community owned solutions between indigenous communities by exploring challenges and achievements of community peer-to-peer knowledge exchange as a way of empowering communities to face up to local environmental and social challenges. Using participatory visual methods, indigenous communities of the North Rupununi (Guyana) identified and documented their community owned solutions through films and photostories. Indigenous researchers from this community then shared their solutions with six other communities that faced similar challenges within Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, French Guiana, and Brazil. They were supported by in-country civil society organizations and academics. We analyzed the impact of the knowledge exchange through interviews, field reports, and observations. Our results show that indigenous community members were significantly more receptive to solutions emerging from, and communicated by, other indigenous peoples, and that this approach was a significant motivating force for galvanizing communities to make changes in their community. We identified a range of enabling factors, such as building capacity for a shared conceptual and technical understanding, that strengthens the exchange between communities and contributes to a lasting impact. With national and international policy-makers mobilizing significant financial resources for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, we argue that the promotion of community owned solutions through community peer-to-peer exchange may deliver more long-lasting, socially and ecologically integrated, and investment-effective strategies compared to top-down, expert led, and/or foreign-led initiatives.

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Indigenous identity and environmental governance in Guyana, South America

Cited by 17 publications

References 44 publications

Maíz: Sustento de vida en la cultura Teenek. Comunidad Tamaletom, Tancanhuitz, S.L.P. México

Maíz: Sustento de vida en la cultura Teenek. Comunidad Tamaletom, Tancanhuitz, S.L.P. México

Community owned solutions: identifying local best practices for social-ecological sustainability

Learning from one another: evaluating the impact of horizontal knowledge exchange for environmental management and governance

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