Indigenous people from Rio Negro start studies to monitor climate and the environment

Original news from Felipe Storch (ISA) published in 05/31/17, translated by OMAC

The unprecedented initiative gathers 50 researchers scattered on the Rio Negro basin to produce knowledge about the cyclical ecosystems and possible environmental and climate changes.

Credit: Aline Scolfaro-ISA

Between March and April 2017, a round of workshops about environmental and climate monitoring mobilized indigenous researchers and experts and researchers from the Instituto Socioambiental (Socioenvironmental Institute – ISA) in the Rio Negro basin. The workshops are part of the collaborative research and monitoring project on the ecological, socioeconomic and climate cycles of the Northwestern Amazon.

The project’s goal is to incentivize spaces which produce collaborative knowlwdge, connecting communities to the development of studies (and policies) about ongoing environmental and climate changes. This unprecedented initiative reaches a territory of around 300,000 sq. Km in the Amazon. Although distant from the main fronts of deforestation and large infrastructure developments, the area has already started to face broader challenges.

Starting from the premise that indigenous peoples are the foremost experts in the region, a network of 50 researchers, named Indigenous Agents of Environmental Management (Aimas), began the environmental and climate monitoring of three municipalities in Rio Negro (Barcelos, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and São Gabriel da Cachoeira). They follow a monitoring routine of themes related to socioenvironmental processes. Each researcher keeps a study journal to note observations, perceptions, conversations, learnings and records related to rain regimes, river levels, agriculture, fishing, hunting, the cycles of life and reproduction of plants, fish and other animals, community events, among others. The researchers then feed a common database with that information.

“To daily record the knowledge inside our fathers’ heads is important. This knowledge will be used as instruments to inform the work of our leadership and will be a source of livelihood in our communities”, states Juvêncio Cardoso, from the Baniwa ethnicity in the Içana river and Coordinator of the Baniwa and Coripaco (CABC) associations.

The Aimas and good management practices

The intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborative research about yearly cycles and their management first started in 2005, in the Tiquié river, and is developed by communities and indigenous associations in coordination with the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). It aims to describe, analyze and share information combining indigenous knowledge to scientific data recording and organization methods. The project is the result of a long partnership between ISA, the Rio Negro Indigenous Organizations Federation (Foirn), and local associations and communities. The research relies on other partners, scientists and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation as sponsors.

The Aimas constitute of a type of community agent, acting for good management practices (garbage disposal, mapping of each community’s areas of use and agreements on the management of fishing, hunting, gathering etc.) in information and research.They live in the communities and come from a wide range of ages and levels of education. They also participate in an information exchange and capacitation program through workshops provided by the ISA. Like all other members of the communities, the Aimas have their own daily tasks, but they dedicate part of their time to research activities. They receive a research support grant and the necessary tools and fuel to develop their environmental management activities.

Collaborative Intercultural Research

The knowledge recorded in the journals is further systematized and understood during monitoring workshops with experts and the communities. For instance, ecological cycles which were recorded by the researchers are reproduced in illustrated models. They are compared to previous cycles and elderly experts collaborate with the Aimas throughout the whole process.

Teachers, small farmers and plant experts, students and members of the communities also participate in the workshops, showing their support and contributing with thoughts on the research themes. These are spaces of intergenerational exchange between indigenous researchers and traditional experts. The agents participate in the whole process: from data collection and analysis, the discussion and publication of results. They are not mere collectors of data that will be processed and analyzed by professional scientists.

To agent Roberval Sampaio Pedrosa, a 39 year old Tukano from the Tiquié River, being a part of the network helps him value his own culture and respect traditional experts even more. They are important learning spaces. “We gain some deeper knowledge from every meeting, workshop, richer than before, and we also have the chance to learn from people from other ethnicities.”

Technology and communication

One of the highlights of the monitoring project is the use of new technologies as recording instruments. The workshops provided training with tablets and a monitoring app to help the daily recording of observations on the climate, the environment and on the life cycles of plants, fish, birds and other animals. In the Tiquié river, where studies about annual cycles have been taking place for over 10 years, news about the use of tablets for socioenvironmental studies lifted the researchers’ spirits. To Sivaldo Navarro da Silva, a Tukano from the Lower Uaupés River  and management agent for almost three years, the lessons learned throughout this period, especially regarding technology, are promising. “I learned how to handle tablets, GPS, voice recorders, to handle technology!”

Currently, Aimas and ISA researchers are elaborating a publication about yearly cycles and management in the Rio Negro basin. Other than reports of the workshops, the paper will contain studies of scientists from outside the project to present their work to the communities, reports by local experts and other important information on climate and environmental monitoring. Thus, the project helps communities to connect to networks which produce knowledge and policies on environmental and climate change, prioritizing indigenous conceptions and knowledge.