Biocultural diversity is the focus of our research project. It is probably one of the best-known terms whenever something is labelled as ‘biocultural’. You've probably also encountered the terms biocultural heritage, biocultural memory and biocultural conservation. And, in fact, there are many, many more expressions of the term…
Last December our project partner Fundacion TIERRA ran a workshop with local leaders from the Chiquitania region in preparation of our field work. The meeting served to present the research project, to identify social-ecological issues and to scope for specific communities to implement the research. In the last…
Last December our project partner Fundación TIERRA ran a workshop with local leaders from the Chiquitania region in preparation of our collaborative research on the field. The meeting intended to present the initial ideas of the research project, to identify the most prominent social-ecological characteristics and problems and…
Many local farmers worldwide gained their knowledge through practices in daily interaction with ecosystems and biodiversity. This knowledge can provide key ideas for transforming agriculture towards a more sustainable and resilient system (Šūmane et al. 2018). Today, I want to share an example of such knowledge that has…
English version below!In unserem Forschungsprojekt beschäftigen wir uns mit biokultureller Diversität in Agrarlandschaften des globalen Südens. Biokulturell bedeutet, die Vielfalt des Lebens in all seinen Erscheinungsformen, inklusive aller ökologischen, kulturellen und sprachlichen Ausprägungen, zu betrachten. Das Konzept wird in der Regel mit der traditionellen Art und Weise in…
Consensus decision making enables all members of a group to reach an agreement. Instead of having an authority rule or a majority vote, which often neglects individuals or minorities, a consensus decision ensures that everyone can actively support it, or at least live with it. If everyone agrees…
Camila BENAVIDES1 & Stefan ORTIZ2 1Agroecologist, Research Associate and PhD Candidate, Social-Ecological Sciences Institute, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg-Germany 2Ecological Economist, Research Associate and PhD Candidate, Social-Ecological Sciences Institute, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg-Germany The alarming fires in the lowland forests of Bolivia are often linked to the lack of control of…
By JAN HANSPACH The global pandemic is influencing research in many different ways. Especially, projects that entail empirical field work suffer from a range of constraints and uncertainties. This is not different for our project – we had been looking forward to our first field season this year…
The common opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) thrives well near human settlements and therefore understanding its ecology could help taking management decisions in anthropogenic landscapes. Although this specie is very common near human communities in Bolivia, no density estimations have been made up to now. Using direct observation data collected…
by Stefan Ortiz Przychodzka Farming landscapes in the Global South are increasingly suffering the pressures of multiple global crises involving social, economic, environmental and political factors. Narratives on how to resolve this situation and to guide the design of public policies often juxtapose two idealized development models: agroindustrial…