Patrick C. Wilson

This project, designed and led by the Indigenous Quijos Sacha Awana research team (including co-PI’s Roxana Tanguila, Lourdes Jipa, and Gonzalo Alvarado Tanguila), will result in the construction of a model forest garden, the Mama Chakra, as a land-based center for research, teaching and learning for members of the Quijos Nation of Ecuador’s Amazon and other Amazonian Indigenous peoples. Goals of the project include activating the governance value of gendered Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), strengthening territorial rights, enhancing food sovereignty and security, and contributing to biodiversity management. The longer-term goal of the research is to contribute to the formulation of Quijos-centered land management plans, or “life plans.” Territorial fragmentation and environmental degradation in Quijos territory due to extractive industry and the expansion of the cattle ranching frontier make this a key priority for leaders of the Nation. The project further responds to the UN Decade on Ecosystems Restoration and addresses one of the prominent gaps in calls for ecological restoration: the need to integrate IKS and TEK in frameworks of restoration. The Mama Chakra will serve as a node for the intergenerational transmission of Quijos IKS and TEK, thus enhancing Quijos epistemological and research sovereignty.