Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HI-LANDeS (More-than-Human Histories of Rural Landscapes in the Andes, 19th-20th century)
Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2025-01-31
In times of unprecedented environmental change and related socio-political challenges, HI-LANDeS addresses the critical need for new knowledge, methods and governance practices that better grasp how human and nonhuman actors have contributed to global socio-environmental transformations. Conventional environmental governance schemes tend to prevent and mitigate environmental change by protecting and separating nature from humans, thereby excluding or simplifying other (e.g. indigenous) modes and practices of relating to nature. This has resulted in an increase in socio-environmental conflicts and vulnerabilities.
HI-LANDeS contributes to a paradigm shift towards an integrated approach that understands socio-environmental change as co-produced by human and nonhuman lives through ‘more-than-human’ histories. HI-LANDeS focuses specifically on wetlands of the Andean highlands, constituting strategic sites for carbon storage, water sources, and biodiversity, as well as the home of resilient indigenous communities.
HI-LANDeS has a double main objective. First, it aims to investigate the role of communal management practices and local ecological knowledge in the context of historical socio-environmental change within a global analytical framework. This will provide an enhanced historical understanding of Andean rural communities’ adaptive capacities in the transformation and governance. Second, the project aims to translate historical insights into an innovative environmental governance approach through a co-creational and intersectoral strategy. This will contribute to more inclusive policy frameworks that are relevant to the regional and global environmental agendas, including the European Green Deal.
HI-LANDeS contributes to a paradigm shift towards an integrated approach that understands socio-environmental change as co-produced by human and nonhuman lives through ‘more-than-human’ histories. HI-LANDeS focuses specifically on wetlands of the Andean highlands, constituting strategic sites for carbon storage, water sources, and biodiversity, as well as the home of resilient indigenous communities.
HI-LANDeS has a double main objective. First, it aims to investigate the role of communal management practices and local ecological knowledge in the context of historical socio-environmental change within a global analytical framework. This will provide an enhanced historical understanding of Andean rural communities’ adaptive capacities in the transformation and governance. Second, the project aims to translate historical insights into an innovative environmental governance approach through a co-creational and intersectoral strategy. This will contribute to more inclusive policy frameworks that are relevant to the regional and global environmental agendas, including the European Green Deal.
HI-LANDeS has made progress regarding its three research objectives, which develop along three research strategies:
First, HI-LANDeS has developed two case studies in wetland areas of the Andean highlands, situated in the Lauca altiplano across the Bolivian-Chilean border and the Lake Poopó basin, Bolivia. Archival research was conducted in seven archival collections in Bolivia and Chile. Ten field work visits were organised across the two case areas, including participatory observation, interviews, focus groups. The collected data allow to analyse how land and water management practices been mobilised, adapted and reinvented as part of communities’ negotiations over state- and market-oriented infrastructures and related environmental change since the mid-19th century.
Second, HI-LANDeS has constructed a global analytical framework. Integrating world-ecology and environmental humanities scholarship, it allows to process the empirical data in order to identify the structural drivers and multispecies entanglements at play in the transformation of Andean rural landscapes.
Third, HI-LANDeS facilitates a co-creational process with local communities, civil society organisations, and public institutions to critically assess how obtained historical insights can inform and strengthen inclusive environmental governance practices. This included the organisations of community meetings, participatory community workshops, liaising with public institutions, and a secondment at NGO Agua Sustentable (La Paz, Bolivia).
Work Package 1 – Case studies
• Implementation of data management and ethics protocols
• Archival research at Archivo Histórico Vicente Dagnino (Universidad de Tarapacá) and the National Archive (Santiago) in Chile; at the Bolivia National Archive (Sucre), the Juridical Archive (Oruro), and the Poopó Provincial Juridical Archive (Poopó) in Bolivia
• 10 field work visits in the two case areas, 1) Sajama and 2) Oruro - Lake Poopó basin (community meetings, participatory observation, interviews, focus groups)
Work Package 2 - Analytical framework
• Literature review
• Feedback on the constructed analytical framework (research group meetings, seminars, invited lectures, colloquia)
Work Package 3 - Co-creational research
• Participatory community workshops with communities in both case areas (Aymara communities of Sajama National Park, Uru communities of the Lake Poopó basin)
• Organisation of an interdisciplinary workshop on Decolonial Participatory Research
• Two secondment periods with NGO Agua Sustentable (La Paz, Bolivia)
Work Package 4 - Training
• Develop Personal Career Development Plan
• Teaching activities at Universidad de Tarapacá and Ghent University (Bachelor, Master, and PhD programmes), as well as guest lectures in Latin American and European universities
• Editorial work for international journals
• Reviewer for international publishers
Work Package 5 - Dissemination & Exploitation
• Development of Dissemination and Exploitation plan
• Presentation of the project before community assemblies
• Presentation of 11 conference papers and organisation of 3 panels at international conferences
• Publication of 2 scientific articles and 3 book reviews in international journals
Work Package 6 – Communication & Engagement
• Development Communication & Public Engagement Plan
• Social media presence
• Publication of 3 accessible, online text or multimedia outputs in magazines and podcasts (Dutch, English)
• Co-organisation and facilitation of online and in-person public events, webinars and trainings (Bolivia, Belgium, international)
Work Package 7 - Project management
• Secondment at Ghent University
• Administrative and financial organisation of the project, obtaining required permissions and documentation, and managing international and intersectoral partnerships
First, HI-LANDeS has developed two case studies in wetland areas of the Andean highlands, situated in the Lauca altiplano across the Bolivian-Chilean border and the Lake Poopó basin, Bolivia. Archival research was conducted in seven archival collections in Bolivia and Chile. Ten field work visits were organised across the two case areas, including participatory observation, interviews, focus groups. The collected data allow to analyse how land and water management practices been mobilised, adapted and reinvented as part of communities’ negotiations over state- and market-oriented infrastructures and related environmental change since the mid-19th century.
Second, HI-LANDeS has constructed a global analytical framework. Integrating world-ecology and environmental humanities scholarship, it allows to process the empirical data in order to identify the structural drivers and multispecies entanglements at play in the transformation of Andean rural landscapes.
Third, HI-LANDeS facilitates a co-creational process with local communities, civil society organisations, and public institutions to critically assess how obtained historical insights can inform and strengthen inclusive environmental governance practices. This included the organisations of community meetings, participatory community workshops, liaising with public institutions, and a secondment at NGO Agua Sustentable (La Paz, Bolivia).
Work Package 1 – Case studies
• Implementation of data management and ethics protocols
• Archival research at Archivo Histórico Vicente Dagnino (Universidad de Tarapacá) and the National Archive (Santiago) in Chile; at the Bolivia National Archive (Sucre), the Juridical Archive (Oruro), and the Poopó Provincial Juridical Archive (Poopó) in Bolivia
• 10 field work visits in the two case areas, 1) Sajama and 2) Oruro - Lake Poopó basin (community meetings, participatory observation, interviews, focus groups)
Work Package 2 - Analytical framework
• Literature review
• Feedback on the constructed analytical framework (research group meetings, seminars, invited lectures, colloquia)
Work Package 3 - Co-creational research
• Participatory community workshops with communities in both case areas (Aymara communities of Sajama National Park, Uru communities of the Lake Poopó basin)
• Organisation of an interdisciplinary workshop on Decolonial Participatory Research
• Two secondment periods with NGO Agua Sustentable (La Paz, Bolivia)
Work Package 4 - Training
• Develop Personal Career Development Plan
• Teaching activities at Universidad de Tarapacá and Ghent University (Bachelor, Master, and PhD programmes), as well as guest lectures in Latin American and European universities
• Editorial work for international journals
• Reviewer for international publishers
Work Package 5 - Dissemination & Exploitation
• Development of Dissemination and Exploitation plan
• Presentation of the project before community assemblies
• Presentation of 11 conference papers and organisation of 3 panels at international conferences
• Publication of 2 scientific articles and 3 book reviews in international journals
Work Package 6 – Communication & Engagement
• Development Communication & Public Engagement Plan
• Social media presence
• Publication of 3 accessible, online text or multimedia outputs in magazines and podcasts (Dutch, English)
• Co-organisation and facilitation of online and in-person public events, webinars and trainings (Bolivia, Belgium, international)
Work Package 7 - Project management
• Secondment at Ghent University
• Administrative and financial organisation of the project, obtaining required permissions and documentation, and managing international and intersectoral partnerships
The case studies have resulted in original data based on largely untapped archival collections and oral histories that contribute to Andean ethnohistory and environmental history as well as to interdisciplinary collaborations. These results are being disseminated through international conferences and articles (published, under review, or drafted) in international journals.
By facilitating communities’ access to archival collections, HI-LANDeS is contributing to the revitalisation and recognition of indigenous communities’ collective memory and their wider political or social agendas. This is particularly the case for the Uru communities of Lake Poopó, which are developing a strategy of ‘territorial reconstitutions’. In Sajama, HI-LANDeS is contributing to the development of relevant outputs for communitarian tourism and policy recommendations in light of climate change challenges.
The project’s embeddedness in an international and intersectoral collaboration has demonstrated potential to contribute to internationalisation of the institutions involved.
By facilitating communities’ access to archival collections, HI-LANDeS is contributing to the revitalisation and recognition of indigenous communities’ collective memory and their wider political or social agendas. This is particularly the case for the Uru communities of Lake Poopó, which are developing a strategy of ‘territorial reconstitutions’. In Sajama, HI-LANDeS is contributing to the development of relevant outputs for communitarian tourism and policy recommendations in light of climate change challenges.
The project’s embeddedness in an international and intersectoral collaboration has demonstrated potential to contribute to internationalisation of the institutions involved.