Indigenous Guided Approaches to Biocultural Mapping and Ecosystem Modeling to Address Shifting Baseline Syndrome and Support Local Forest Monitoring and Watershed Recovery Targets in the Republic of Panama and Subarctic Canada

Project Description

Preserving and enhancing the conditions necessary for life on Earth is the defining challenge for inter-disciplinary and trans-epistemic (bridging scientific and Indigenous systems) knowledge-to-action. Biocultural approaches to biodiversity conservation acknowledge the interdependence of culturally and linguistically diverse Indigenous communities – in particular their environmental knowledge and stewardship institutions – and the biological diversity of their territories. We develop a multi-disciplinary research collaboration between the Centre for Indigenous Conservation and Development Alternatives (CICADA) and the Panama Research and Integrated Sustainability Model (PRISM). We will integrate Indigenous biocultural knowledge practices, counter-cartographic and videographic techniques (CICADA) with remote sensing, species distribution and hydrological modeling (PRISM), to develop local ecosystem baselines that will strengthen the capacity of our partner communities, the Majé Emberá Drüa in the Bayano-Majecito watershed of south-eastern Panama and the Cree Nation of Wemindji in the Old Factory and La Grande watersheds of northern Québec, for territorial planning and stewardship.

Principal Investigator

Collaborators