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- Convenors:
-
Lucia Guaita
(IUCN National Committee of The Netherlands)
Liliana Jauregui (IUCN NL)
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- Discussant:
-
Anthony Cummings
(University of Texas at Dallas)
- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Friday 29 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Jaguars play a vital role in many indigenous cosmologies.As jaguars' populations are declining, an expert group of anthropologists and conservationists discusses the need to engage with traditional knowledge to reconnect local people to the species to successfully protect it.(Spanish interpretation)
Long Abstract:
Jaguars are the largest feline of the American continent and a valuable symbol for many indigenous cultures. However, jaguars are increasingly endangered, primarily due to habitat loss, human wildlife conflicts and wildlife trade. Current efforts to protect the species are predominantly informed and influenced by Western perceptions and scientifically rooted management approaches. Conservation organizations have often overlooked and failed to acknowledge the importance of local and indigenous views and knowledge on jaguars. Because indigenous territories overlap with more than half of world's biodiversity, integrating their ecological knowledge and cultural perceptions on jaguars is a fundamental step to design multi-cultural plans, while reconnecting societies with the cultures and beliefs of their territories. Learning from indigenous cosmologies, narratives and other native original knowledge about the jaguar can broad our knowledge and, can also elevate the priority given to wildlife conservation by governments and the public. In this panel, anthropologists, indigenous people and conservationists will engage in an open dialogue about fundamental principles and perspectives that are vital for the protection of jaguars with an active leadership role of local communities and indigenous peoples. The output of this discussion will constitute an important contribution for any actor working in the field of nature conservation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 29 October, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
The results of a long-term study on the jaguar population at Brownsberg Nature Park, Suriname, are used to shed light on the factors influencing the population dynamics of jaguars and human-jaguar interactions in the quest to successfully protect this species.
Paper long abstract:
Conservation management decisions are often based on population characteristics of ecological key species, such as jaguars. Especially long-term studies are proved to be ideal to capture the dynamics in density fluctuations and details on population structure over time. A nine-year study, from 2012-2020, was conducted on the status of the jaguar population at Brownsberg Nature Park (BNP). The calculated density varied between 0.51 and 4.21 individuals/100km2. The density estimates were largely controlled by biological and anthropogenic influences on the social behavior of the population. The twenty-seven jaguars identified had an overall short tenure in the area, an indication of possible poaching. Nevertheless, there was obvious reproductive behavior in numerous courtship events and detections of mother with cub. Females (including with cub) showed a high preference for using open roads. Ecotourism in the park has resulted in shifts in the activity pattern of jaguars to more nocturnality, portraying avoidance behavior. A human-jaguar conflict study in 2010 showed that most conflicts result from predation on livestock (49%), hunting (33%) and fear (60%). Twenty-seven percent of these conflicts were fatal for the jaguar. (Illegal) goldmining and logging, the foremost registered human disturbances, and threads to the jaguar population at BNP, commonly have a negative effect on jaguar numbers, especially in relation to poaching. Overall, imbalances in human-jaguar relations are often the result of a decline in preys’ availability and habitat loss. Only by restoring the ecological balance and regulating human presence with BNP, humans and jaguars will be able to coexist.
Paper short abstract:
The Matis live in the Terra Indígena Vale do Javari, Amazon. They don't like to be called "jaguar people". Here, I tell a myth about the fire, a story of a shaman boy that survived a jaguar attack and about the mimesis of the jaguar patterns to show how to be a jaguar and avoid being a prey.
Paper long abstract:
The Jaguar takes the central place of power and the owner of the fire among many Amazonian hunter indigenous people. The Matis live in the Terra Indígena Vale do Javari, Amazonas, in Brazil. They don't like to be called the "jaguar people", as some filmmakers insist on referring to them because of their face tattoos, shell earrings, nose spikes and pendant that resembles the jaguar look. Nevertheless, the Matis have a lot in common with the jaguar, they praise themselves as being excellent blow pipe and (in the last years) rifle hunters, specially of arboreal animals such as monkeys and birds. In this article, I will reflect on the jaguar cosmology in the Matis communities. I will tell a Matis myth of the jaguar who lost the fire to the Bacurau bird and then learn from (wrongly observing) the Matis how to eat raw meat and the story of the boy that became a shaman after surviving the attack of a jaguar. I want them to shift from cosmology to the practice of weaving jaguar patterns and their mesmerising designs. We will observe together the powerful beauty of the Matis' bracelets and anklets, a subtle mimesis of the jaguar patterns ("rosetas", as the biologist call them), and their face tattoos and piercings. In the end, bringing also other anthropologist's reflections about the Panoan speaking indigenous people, I will observe the importance given to the mimesis of the hunter (the jaguar) in order to avoid being treated as their prey (the peccary, a kind of wild pig).
Paper short abstract:
Jaguar Voice of a Territory is a journey through the mountains, jungles and plains of Colombia where the Jaguar has had a direct relationship with the human being. Giving rise to a millennial journey of songs, myths and cultural traditions that tell the story of the Man-Jaguar relationship and the importance of preserving this species that is now seriously threatened.
Paper long abstract:
Our experience of more than a decade in the footprints of the jaguar, guided by the millenary knowledge of different indigenous traditions of the Colombian territory, allowed us to understand that the jaguar, beyond being a wild animal, is a greater energy and at the same time very old that protects great knowledge In both botany and medicine way, its wisdom has been used in a balanced and respectful way by the ancient peoples of America to give meaning to their traditions that even today are kept alive in a sacred and just balance with the natural world.
Jaguar is a tradition that is carried inside, it is a legacy that today the great shamans share with us, the Jaguar is the voice of a territory that speaks of love, affection, respect, humility, temperance and courage, balance with one and the other, it is a knowledge that today seeks to be heard.
For us to share this film with the world has been an experience of greatness and gratitude, it is to have the great opportunity to revive, maintain and transmit an ancient knowledge that is of great importance for the times that human beings face today
Director Simón González Vélez
Producers: Carlos E Londoño Sánchez, Andrés Quintero Campos, Simón Gonzalez Velez
A production of: CANOA FILMS and RUGE FILMS
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores human-jaguar interactions in Amazonian Guyana. For the local Makushi people, jaguars are shamans. Jaguars are also at the forefront of scientific conservation efforts. The paper evaluates the dynamics between indigenous and scientific knowledge in big cat conservation in Guyana
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores human-jaguar engagements among the Makushi people of Amazonian Guyana. In common with indigenous peoples across Amazonia, Makushi cosmology is based on a shamanic complex which places jaguars at its centre. Along with anacondas and harpy eagles, jaguars (kaikusi) are the archetypal shamanic animals. Jaguars are shamans, and, like shamanic beings in general, can transit the levels of the cosmos. Likewise, human shamans (pia'san) can communicate with - and transform into - jaguars. At the same time, jaguars are at the forefront of conservation efforts. Makushi communities host visiting scientists researching the ecology of neotropical cats, including an ongoing project which uses camera traps to map jaguar populations in the surrounding forest. Although Makushi experts are willing collaborators, there are inevitable disjunctures between the indigenous and scientific knowledge undergirding these interactions. For instance, the Makushi recognise many more species of cat than are currently identified by biologists. These include the mysterious 'tapir tiger', a huge underwater jaguar, and the 'waracabara tiger', a small cat which flies through the canopy at great speed. From a biological purview, these ethno-species occupy the realm between zoology and cryptozoology: biologists discount their existence, whilst anthropologists treat them as mythological beings. Herein, I evaluate Makushi accounts of jaguar-like cats from an ontological perspective, giving more credence to indigenous knowledge and lifeways. Exploring collaborations and conflicts between indigenous and scientific communities in big cat conservation in Guyana allows for some broader reflections concerning the compatibility of scientific and indigenous knowledge in Amazonia.