DECOLONIZING AGRICULTURE A Case Study of Chakras in the Ecuadorian Amazon Katherine Riebe, Alexandria Sedar and Linda Xiong Master of Sustainable Peacebuilding, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Good afternoon, everyone! My name is Linda Xiong. I'm Katherine Riebe. My name is Alexandria Sedar. Today, we look at the impact of outside forces on Indigenous people, their land and culture.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE GLOBALLY LINDA: People who identify as indigenous represent 5% of the world’s population and disproportionately 15% of the world’s poor. Autonomous Indigenous land constitutes 22% of world's land surface and sustains 80% of the planet's biodiversity. This highlights the significance of Indigenous knowledge and practices in protecting our planet.

CULTURAL DISPOSSESSION Outside Forces Indigenous Way of Life Colonization Climate Change Land Appropriation Traditional Hereditary Assets LINDA: However, outside forces like colonization have routinely dispossessed Indigenous people of their traditional hereditary assets, an example being agricultural practices.

LINDA: Today, we examine how this plays out with the declined use of chakras which threatens the economic security, health, and cultural survival of the Kichwa. Chakras, not to be confused with the term related to meditation practices, are a traditional growing method used by the Kichwa people who are indigenous to the Ecuadorian Amazon.  https://www.waykana.com/waykana/impact/

KATHERINE There are about 80,000 Kichwa in Ecuador. We look at the Kichwa in Napo province which is in the Amazon.

Fruit, vegetables, herbs, animals Up to 50 traditional crops WHAT IS A CHAKRA? Agroforestry plots  Fruit, vegetables, herbs, animals  Up to 50 traditional crops  Part of Kichwa culture  Agroforestry is a system where trees, crops and animals grow in harmony.  Chakras are modified forests with a diversity of plants and often animals which provide food and nutritional resources for the Kichwa while playing a strong role in cultural identity and belonging.

ECOSYSTEMS GOODS AND SERVICES (EGS) Nature's gifts that support and provide what we need to live. Biodiversity Climate regulation Migration for species Food and habitat for insects and other animals Soil and nutrient cycling Ecosystems goods and services are essential for life and chakras are rich in them.  For the Kichwa, they provide food security, fuel, aspects of culture and medicine.  For the world, chakras help preserve biodiversity, aid in seed dispersal, pollination, climate regulation and more.    Act as safety net during lean times Source of food, medicine and fuel Kichwa cultural practices and traditions

Systems Map of Factors Contributing to Decreased Chakra Use Cultural and Social Environmental Health Government and Policy Economic All Categories LEGEND DRIA Despite the many benefits of the chakra growing system, its use is decreasing. With both primary and secondary data from literature and interviews, we created this systems map showing the factors contributing to decreased chakra use and their connections. The map demonstrates complexity in the system and how these factors interact with one another. The legend colors show which category each factor belongs to –  cultural and social, health, environment, government and policy and economic.  

KEY CONTRIBUTING FACTORS Pursuit of profit Poverty Search for economic opportunities Government policies DRIA The four key contributing factors that emerged as the most influential to the declined use of chakras are mapped here. These include pursuit of profit, poverty, search for economic opportunities, and government policies.

LINDA: The Kichwa have been thrown into a post-colonial, capitalist system where their livelihood depends on money.  This is exacerbated by government policies that often provide incentives for expanding agricultural and extraction industries and migration to the Amazon. As a result, land ownership is threatened as the Kichwa are denied their rightful claim to ancestral lands.

LINDA: As outside populations migrate to the Amazon to work in agricultural or extraction industries, they contribute to the urbanization of the region. They often clear land for extraction, livestock, monocropping, and settlement, resulting in less land available for chakras.

LINDA: At the same time, some Kichwa people integrate into the market economy by growing traditional foods for commercialization. As a result, these products take up space in chakras, trending towards monocropping or the growing of a single crop in an area year after year.

LINDA: To pursue more opportunities, many Kichwa people move to cities and can’t maintain chakras from afar. This reduces participation in cultural practices and traditions through the changing role of women who cook foods from chakras and transmission from one generation to the next.

LINDA: These three factors lead to the declined use of chakras, which leads to environmental degradation.

LINDA: The pursuit of profit can also directly lead to environmental degradation and vice versa. Some decisions made for immediate financial gain, like cutting trees for logging or clearing land for extraction, are made without consideration of long-term effects, like erosion and declined soil fertility.

SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE  ECUADOR Government & Policy Business and Private Sector NGOs and Development Organizations DRIA We divided our solutions by scale, looking at what was being done in Ecuador to support chakra use and what was being done globally to protect and promote indigenous agricultural methods. One solution in Ecuador has providing monetary incentives for environmental conservation, like UN REDD program and Ecuador’s Sociobosque program. Social enterprises and nonprofits have focused on creating markets for chakra products to both incentivize chakra use more it more economically viable.  

SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE GLOBAL Indigenous Activism NGOs and Development Organizations Research and Academia  DRIA On the global scale, Indigenous organizations around the world like COICA have been strong forces in promoting Indigenous agricultural practices, gaining and protecting land rights and bringing the Indigenous voice to global settings. There has also been an increased incorporation of the indigenous voice in the development sector and higher education accompanied by measures to ensure indigenous control over how their knowledge is presented and used.  

Factors Impacted by the Current Solutions Landscape Cultural and Social Environmental Health Government and Policy Economic All Categories LEGEND DRIA The factors shadowed in gray are directly impacted by the current solutions landscape. The majority are in the environmental and economic sector, but important parts of the system remain relatively untouched, like health and nutrition security and deeper structural influences of colonialism.  So, while these programs have seen some success, there are still gaps.  

GAPS AND LEVERS OF CHANGE Land Ownership Private Sector Ecosystem Goods and Services The Kichwa in Policy-making  KATHERINE We identified four factors that directly affect the well-being of the Kichwa.  They are issues of land ownership, how much freedom the private sector has to do whatever it wants, how ecosystems goods and services are valued and the need for Kichwa involvement in all levels of government and decision making.

GAPS IN PRESENT SOLUTIONS Not Properly Valuing EGS EGS are often misused or wasted  Decisions often made without regard to impact on EGS Challenges of Land Ownership Land use and ownership threatened Problems with land titling and inheritance Katherine The Kichwa face challenges in land ownership.  According to the Rainforest Alliance, worldwide, the majority of Indigenous people still lack the legal rights to their ancestral lands.   Mining, logging, and monocropping all threaten Kichwa land and put stress on the environment.  Some activities are carried out illegally and many are questionable ethically.  Transgressions against the Kichwa and their land are often not atoned for.     There has been indiscriminate use and a heavy burden placed on ecosystems goods and service in the rainforest.  Many decisions are made with financial profit in mind not the impact they will have on the environment.      Colonization is characterized by those in charge making decisions about and for the colonized.  The Kichwa are marginalized because they generally have little say in the making of policies that affect them.   Bottom-Up Approach​ Outsiders decide the lives of the Kichwa​ Policy making and programming frequently marginalize​ Actions of Private Sector Destruction wreaked in name of profit Environmental and social misdeeds often unpunished

LEVERS OF CHANGE Not Properly Valuing EGS Challenges of Land Ownership Importance of EGS taken into consideration  Policies & structures based on this Challenges of Land Ownership Fair transparent land laws​ Land rights of Kichwa upheld KATHERINE We identified levers of change to address gaps in the system.     The rights of the Kichwa need to be formally recognized and codified so that their land cannot be taken away from them or encroached on.  The private sector should not be allowed to act with impunity.  The government should not cater more to international interests than it does to its own people.  Business ethics and environmental stewardship should be required and strictly enforced.   The impact on ecosystems goods and services must be factored into decision making as well as the environmental legacy for future generations.   The Kichwa must have a say on issues that affect them.  For example, Sustainable Development Goal 16.7 calls for ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.  Actions of Private Sector Laws should be enforced, and strong deterrents put in place Kichwa people and land must be protected Bottom-Up Approach​ All stakeholders need to collaborate and participate The Kichwa must be involved at all stages of decision-making and be given leadership positions

DRIA: The lives of Indigenous people are complex DRIA: The lives of Indigenous people are complex. While we feel we have a good grasp of the role of chakras in Kichwa life, we acknowledge that our understanding is partial, incomplete and at times flawed.  It is not our intention to speak for the Kichwa people as we believe they have the right of self-determination as all peoples do. Rather, we come alongside them, joining their voices in declaring that their right to their ancestral lands and way of life be respected.   KATHERINE: As a person of Nigerian descent, I can tell you that colonization is not just a thing of the past.  It is present, pervasive and persistent. As among the Kichwa, oil and timber have been a resource curse in Nigeria causing untold environmental destruction and human suffering.  In our research, we learned that the pursuit of profit is the primary inhibitor of well-being in our system not poverty.  We learned that  colonization is about economics and power, and decolonization is about valuing people more than money. LINDA: As a Hmong-American, transmission of cultural practices is very important to me. I have seen instances where Hmong people in Laos rely on tourism to adapt to a post-colonial way of life, albeit without access to basic needs like clean water and healthcare. We learned that while social enterprises have good inten\tions, it is challenging to exist in a capitalist system and also work against it. We recognized that addressing economic insecurity often perpetuates colonialism by encouraging Indigenous people to enter a system that excludes their voice, culture and traditions. DRIA: My native American heritage was shared with me through time spent in the garden with my grandparents. Growing food and medicine, I became intimately acquainted with the inherent connection shared between humans and the Earth. 

DRIA: While indigenous identity is complex and there is no one definition of what it is to be indigenous, and there are things indigenous people share. Across the world structures of colonialism, capitalism and imperialism severe cultural identity from the environment, which has led to the devaluation of Indigenous people, their knowledge and their voice. Therefore, the potential for large-scale change lies in not only changing how the system is viewed, but also changing how we value the system.