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1. Human–plant relations shed light on forms of reciprocity in Indigenous territorial stewardship. This article shows how Cofán, Siona and Siekopai (also Secoya or Airo Pai in Peru) Indigenous Peoples in the western Amazon collect, cultivate and use yoco (Paullinia yoco) to promote communal conviviality, reclaim once-threatened cultural practices and advance new forms of collective stewardship to promote social-ecological well-being. Yoco is a caffeine-rich liana closely intertwined with the daily life and spiritual practices of many Indigenous Amazonian Peoples, particularly within the tri-border region of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 2. We centre Indigenous storytelling as pedagogy and methodology, something common in the Amazon and relevant to yoco, as it is consumed socially and often while stories are shared. 3. Through collaborative transdisciplinary research, we assess the forms of relationality and reciprocity yoco fosters in three ways. First, we discuss histories, uses and cultivation of yoco. Second, we consider the divergent pathways that communities have had with yoco, from loss to recuperation of human–plant relations across time. Third, we show examples of how differentiated use of yoco in Cofán, Siekopai and Siona communities supports cultural revitalization, territorial defense and stewardship initiatives evidenced by renewed efforts to enhance intergenerational transmission of local knowledge. 4. Cofán, Siona and Siekopai stewardship of yoco is not merely ecological management of a plant but represents a dynamic interaction between cultural identity, spiritual practice and political resistance. As Siona, Siekopai and Cofán communities confront external pressures such as deforestation, extractive industries and socio-political marginalization, relationships with yoco facilitate pathways to sustain cultural and ecological relations in the face of profound change. 5. Reclaiming and maintaining human–plant relations is a form of self-determination that can inform effective and ethical biocultural conservation. Through yoco, the Cofán, Siekopai and Siona peoples demonstrate that biocultural conservation helps maintain social-ecological well-being while underscoring the importance of territory. The future of conservation must embrace Indigenous stewardship, where reciprocity and care for both human and non-human worlds are central.
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Indigenous Fire Data Sovereignty: Applying Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles to Fire Research
Indigenous Peoples have been stewarding lands with fire for ecosystem improvement since time immemorial. These stewardship practices are part and parcel of the ways in which Indigenous Peoples have long recorded and protected knowledge through our cultural transmission practices, such as oral histories. In short, our Peoples have always been data gatherers, and as this article presents, we are also fire data gatherers and stewards. Given the growing interest in fire research with Indigenous communities, there is an opportunity for guidance on data collection conducted equitably and responsibly with Indigenous Peoples. This Special Issue of Fire presents fire research approaches and data harvesting practices with Indigenous communities as we “Reimagine the Future of Living and Working with Fire”. Specifically, the article provides future-thinking practices that can achieve equitable, sustainable, and just outcomes with and for stakeholders and rightholders (the preferred term Indigenous Peoples use in partnerships with academics, agencies, and NGOs). This research takes from the following key documents to propose an “Indigenous fire data sovereignty” (IFDS) framework: (1) Articles declared in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as identified by the author and specified in Indigenous-led and allied Indigenous fire research in Australia, Canada, and the U.S.; (2) recommendations specific to cultural fire policy and calls for research in the 2023 Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission report; (3) research and data barriers and opportunities produced in the 2024 Good Fire II report; and threads from (4) the Indigenous Fire Management conceptual model. This paper brings together recommendations on Indigenous data sovereignty, which are principles developed by Indigenous researchers for the protection, dissemination, and stewardship of data collected from Tribal/Nation/Aboriginal/First Nations Indigenous communities. The proposed IFDS framework also identifies potential challenges to Indigenous fire data sovereignty. By doing so, the framework serves as an apparatus to deploy fire research and data harvesting practices that are culturally informed, responsible, and ethically demonstrated. The article concludes with specific calls to action for academics and researchers, allies, fire managers, policymakers, and Indigenous Peoples to consider in exercising Indigenous fire data sovereignty and applying Indigenous data sovereignty principles to fire research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2335568
- PAR ID:
- 10564934
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Fire
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2571-6255
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 222
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7070222
