SHAPING OUR OWN DESTINY – THINKING OF TOMORROW

In 2023, ENCA funded a project on the promotion of ancestral knowledge in Gunayala, the region of Panama inhabited by the Guna people. The project was conducted by CENDAH, the Centre for Environmental and Human Development and the following is CENDAH’s report to the Guna General Congress, the highest authority of the Guna people of Panama. It was translated by ENCA member Jill Powis. 

Cosechando mama (yuca). Foto: Archivo AMRD, abril 2024

By Geodisio Castillo, Director of CENDAH

We are indeed going to celebrate 100 years of the Dule Revolution, but this is not the time to talk about historical events of great significance. Instead, I briefly present here an initiative to assess the impacts of slash and burn as a case study and to hold seminar workshops to raise awareness. We thank ENCA which, in 2023, supported the Centre for Environmental and Human Development (CENDAH) in Gunayala, Panama, in our programme to promote ancestral knowledge.

The initiative took place over 12 months and aimed to identify the impacts of slash and burn following the COVID 19 pandemic and to raise awareness of the value of native medicinal plants and conservation. It also aimed to introduce innovations in the management of nainu family systems [traditional agroforestry plots] and hold discussions and exchange experiences with inadulemar [traditional doctors using herbal medicine], taking into account climate change and biodiversity issues. CENDAH's objective was to promote understanding among community members, mainly farmers, of how these environmental challenges were interlinked and how they could better manage nature's resources to secure healthier and more sustainable livelihoods.

The first activity, assessing the impact of slash and burn, was not carried out immediately – we waited for the season when nainu were made on the hillsides. Before that, we carried out a literature review of the subject. Normally gunadule farmers start their agricultural activities in summer (yoleb). The results of the study are currently being reviewed. Although we have ancestral knowledge of agroforestry work on hillsides, this is not widely shared at the moment, and so young people have little idea about environment-friendly agroforestry methods of making family nainu. A sudden increase in slash and burn activity could cause serious ecological damage to soils, water courses and community health, as must have happened at the time of the pandemic, when many trees were slashed and burned to make nainu. The study’s results on this are still pending.

The initiative’s methodology was one of community engagement, allowing us to verify, in the first instance, through dialogue with individual farmers or the community in general, if slash and burn really did have a negative effect on the environment, and if the agroforestry production system of family nainu was sustainable, based on the ancestral knowledge of the Gunadule people, yielding vegetable, animal and medicinal products, and conserving nature in its biodiversity.

Three key farmers took part, who had more time to engage in dialogue: Mr. Aurelio Jimenez, 78 years old, from the Mandi Ubgigandub community, a very experienced farmer who carried out slash and burn every yoleb; Mr. Avelino Perez, from Gardi Sugdub who, when he was young, was a hunter and farmer, then becoming a forest ranger and coordinator of the Secretariat of Territorial Defence of the Onmaggeddummagan (General Congresses of the Guna people - Cultural and spiritual, and administrative and political), and Euclides Sánchez, leader of the Olonagdiginya young farmers’ organisation.

The participation of the Association of Rural Women of Digir (AMRD) and the cooperation of the Association of Women Bundorgan [sisters], as well as the inadulemar, were essential for the awareness-raising workshops. These workshops made it possible to reflect, with critical awareness, on the need to change the situation in relation to the environment and to take active measures to adopt medicine and food production methods which would pave the way for solutions to the problems currently jeopardising the future of life damage although the some biodiversity must have been lost. and the biodiversity of Ologwadule (Mother Earth). The workshops were held in the nainugan [plural of nainu] of the AMRD’s community Digirneggwebur.

In the – participatory workshops, farmers gained theoretical and practical knowledge of the benefits and characteristics of agroforestry systems, and their potential in the transition to an economy based on nainu agroforestry family production. There was a lot of discussion of slash and burn as the first step in establishing nainu family agroforestry and mixed cropping.

In conclusión

We know that the slash and burn of trees has negative consequences for the environment and biodiversity, such as soil erosion, the death and displacement of wildlife, changes to water cycles and soil fertility, and environmental pollution. The tours to the communities and to the field at the time of brush clearing, and slash and burn, showed that so far there had been no negative impacts from the smoke from the burning of trees and other vegetation. There have been a few accidents, but nothing serious - always just "little things", the farmers told us. In terms of the negative effects of slash and burn, there has been nothing serious that would environment, although some biodiversity must have been lost.

The nainu family agroforestry production system is still sustainable. So far, we have been able to observe its coexistence with wildlife and the presence of negsered forest in succession or recovery, converting the landscape back into forest.

The knowledge of ancestral food or agroforestry systems of nainu are linked to family and social organisation, values, technology and environment, achieving ecological, cultural and socioeconomic diversity as strategies for the sustainable development of each community. An innovative element is the recognition of the value of ancestral and local knowledge systems for the environment and of the prevailing nainu family agroforestry systems of natural resource management.

Ancestral knowledge is a fundamental part of the response to the current crises. Recognising its enormous value is essential for a more equitable and sustainable world. However, there is still a long way to go until this knowledge is fully accepted by society.

This wisdom and/or ancestral knowledge is not only a way of life, but also represents a relationship with medicine, cosmovision.

Referencia:

CENDAH, 2024. ENCA Newsletter 90  April 2024 | Page 6-7

Para su lectura en castellano, leer en: https://gubiler.blogspot.com/2024/02/proyecto-de-promocion-de-los.html