{"id":106,"date":"2024-11-21T11:56:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T10:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/2024\/11\/21\/nature-conservation-and-indigenous-territories-transitioning-from-the-biological-to-the-biocultural\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T14:49:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T12:49:38","slug":"nature-conservation-and-indigenous-territories-transitioning-from-the-biological-to-the-biocultural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/2024\/11\/21\/nature-conservation-and-indigenous-territories-transitioning-from-the-biological-to-the-biocultural\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature conservation and Indigenous territories \u2013 Transitioning from the biological<\/I> to the biocultural<\/I>"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 16th Conference of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) took place in Colombia during the last two weeks of October 2024. The city of Cali became the main stage for intergovernmental efforts to protect nature. A key outcome of the summit was recognising the critical role of Indigenous peoples in conserving global biodiversity. <\/em>(Leer art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Legally recognised Indigenous territories represent over 28% of the world\u2019s land surface and intersect approximately 40% of all terrestrial protected areas<\/a>. It is widely known that most of these territories are managed in ways compatible with environmental conservation by sustaining, protecting and even enhancing ecosystem diversity through \u2018accompanying\u2019 natural processes<\/a>. COP16<\/a> marked a significant milestone for Indigenous peoples worldwide by adopting a new Programme of Work to safeguard traditional knowledge and by establishing a Subsidiary Body as a dedicated permanent forum for Indigenous peoples and local communities<\/a> to achieve the goals of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Exhibition<\/a>
Exhibition of the maquette Awaska Alpa_Woven Territory at Antonio Jos\u00e9 Camacho University. Image: Santiago del Hierro \u00a9 ETH Z\u00fcrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chumbe<\/a>
Chumbe strips represent all Inga communities and hold the Andes and the Amazon. Image: Santiago del Hierro \u00a9 ETH Z\u00fcrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aligned with this global Indigenous movement, the AWAI organisation of the Inga People of Colombia also contributed to COP16 by supporting the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity in official negotiations and showcasing the research project Awaska Alpa_Woven Territory at Antonio Jos\u00e9 Camacho University<\/a>, a collaboration between AWAI and the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich. Awaska Alpa is a critical cartographic exploration aimed at \u201cre-discovering\u201d the extent and complexity of ancestral Inga territory beyond what is legally recognised by the state. This action research project<\/a> also seeks to understand the intricate political, cultural, and spiritual relationship between the Inga people and the broader territory \u201cwalked by the elders\u201d (caminado por los abuelos).<\/p>\n

Beginning in 2022, a team of 45 \u201cknowers\u201d and weavers used large-scale aerial imagery to locate all 94 Inga communities. Each community was represented with a colourful chumbe strip that holds and supports mountains, forests, rivers, and towns crafted with local materials from the Andean Amazon. It is the first time all Inga communities are simultaneously represented in a three-dimensional cartography, unveiling a broader perspective of their territory. The exhibition of Awaska Alpa at COP16 sparked an intercultural dialogue among Inga community members, representatives of the Colombian government<\/a>, and civil society about the importance of acknowledging and protecting the biological and cultural knowledge embedded in Indigenous ancestral territories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Harmonisation<\/a>
Harmonisation event at COP16 with Indigenous, government and university representatives. Image: Camilo Jansasoy \u00a9 ETH Z\u00fcrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Left:<\/a>
Left: Inga leaders Miguel Evanjuanoy (left) and Freider Legarda Mojomboy (right) present the Awaska Alpa process to Susana Muhamad, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and President of COP16. Right: X post by Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation at the harmonization event. \u00a9 ETH Z\u00fcrich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While COP16 highlighted the ongoing challenges in securing the resources needed to safeguard Earth\u2019s ecosystems<\/a>, it also conveyed a message of hope by recognizing the invaluable knowledge that less \u201cdeveloped\u201d regions contribute. Indigenous peoples are leading the way in understanding nature not just as a biological space but as a biocultural one.<\/p>\n

Santiago del Hierro<\/a> is a LUS doctoral fellow at Architecture of Territory, where his research looks at new ways of understanding and representing Indigenous territories in Colombia. He holds an MArch from Yale University, where he studied as a Fulbright scholar. Previously, he was a design researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie (2009-2010) in Maastricht and taught at Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Ecuador (2011-2017).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 16th Conference of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) took place in Colombia during the last two weeks of October 2024. The city of Cali became the main stage for intergovernmental efforts to protect nature. A key outcome of the summit was recognising the critical role of Indigenous peoples in conserving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"departemente":[138,159,199],"newsletter_ausgabe":[248],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter-artikel","departemente-departement-architektur-d-arch","departemente-institut-fuer-landschaft-und-urbane-studien-lus","departemente-prof-milica-topalovic","newsletter_ausgabe-nl-64"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Newsletter-Artikel"}],"departemente":[{"value":138,"label":"Departement Architektur (D-ARCH)"},{"value":159,"label":"Institut f\u00fcr Landschaft und Urbane Studien (LUS)"},{"value":199,"label":"Prof. Milica Topalovic"}],"newsletter_ausgabe":[{"value":248,"label":"NL 64"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/1_Close-up_skaliert-1024x768.jpg",1024,768,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Yaxin Hou","author_link":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/author\/houya\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":23,"name":"Newsletter-Artikel","slug":"newsletter-artikel","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":680,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":23,"category_count":680,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Newsletter-Artikel","category_nicename":"newsletter-artikel","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"departemente","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/departemente?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter_ausgabe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xoxo.capsule.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter_ausgabe?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}