Witsaja iki, or the good life in Ecuadorian Amazonia: Knowledge co-production for climate resilience

Abstract

Contemporary narratives of climate change have been recounted predominately through the lens of western sciences. However, indigenous and traditional knowledge systems are increasingly finding their voices echoed within the field of climate change, as the limitations of a purely scientific discourse are revealed. Through the stories and perspectives of the Sapara Nation, located in the Ecuadorian Amazon, this research illustrates local insights and perceptions of environmental change, as well as the onset of the external drivers – natural resources extraction and ecological conservation programmes – influencing the livelihoods and territories of this region. Through participatory resilience workshops, grounded in the framework of the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (IPCCA), this research explores themes of territory, hunting and fishing, medicinal plants and agriculture, spiritual worlds and climate prediction. This journeying into traditional ecological knowledge systems illustrates perceptions of time that are cyclical, relational and rooted in the environment; predictions of climate grounded in the insights of dreams, surrounding temperatures and the presence of flora and fauna; and autonomous, resilient Indigenous knowledge systems. These approaches reveal a radically altered environment, one of unpredictable winds and rains, altered wildlife patterns, disappearing species, destroyed habitats and the onset of new illnesses, complicating food sources, traditional livelihoods and mobility. In response, the Sapara Nation is crafting its own vision for its livelihoods and territories, in the midst of a changing climate.