The Amazon basin is one of the most botanically rich regions of the world, whose species and habitats are poorly understood and being altered at an alarming rate. Amazonian indigenous peoples and their cultural knowledge are even more threatened than species and habitats. Indigenous land cover classification systems represent a repository of ecological knowledge that have been little studied and poorly understood. This study will utilize an ethnoecological framework to investigate how the Maijuna Indians of the Peruvian Amazon, a vanishing people, perceive their natural world and the resources found there and to better understand how they act on these perceptions. The objectives of this study are to: (1) document the land cover classification system of the Maijuna; (2) understand how they use the culturally-based land cover types, and their associated resources, seasonally and temporally; (3) document the ecological knowledge and management strategies associated with each land cover type; (4) compare the land cover classification systems of Western Science and other Amazonian indigenous groups to that of the Maijuna; and (5) ecologically assess the Maijuna recognized land cover types. This project will provide insight into how indigenous peoples perceive, use, and manage resources and land cover types in Amazonia.
Broader Impacts: Aside from its major role in training a young bio-social scientist, this ethnoecological study of the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon will benefit society by documenting a major aspect of the ethnobotanical knowledge and heritage of an indigenous group that has become increasingly marginalized. The results, translated into Spanish, will be distributed throughout the Sucusari river basin to serve as a permanent record for the Maijuna descendents. Participatory mapping, a methodology that will be used to establish the ethnoecological landscape, has been used by other indigenous groups and organizations to show occupation of lands, make land claims, and to defend land from incursions. This may be especially important to the Maijuna who have lost direct control of much of their land. The research results may serve to empower the Maijuna community to conserve their traditional ethnoecological and ethnobotanical knowledge and resource management strategies. Finally, understanding Maijuna land classification systems and management strategies may well provide insights to western civilization on how to better manage the Amazon as it succumbs to development.
