I was travelling in a teetering wooden canoe along Rio Conambo in the middle of Ecuador’s South-East Amazon. We had just arrived in Ripano, a small hilltop community. The jungle was so thick I could barely see the sky, fog settled into the treetops, rain began to sprinkle down, the humidity seeped into my bones, and I felt so extraordinarily small against the backdrop of a timeless rainforest.
I was collaborating on a participatory research project concerning climate change vulnerability and adaptation across several Amazonian communities. During one of the workshop days we focused on methods of climate prediction. Some of the community members asked me what I did to forecast future climate conditions, temperature or rainfall. I said I called weather networks or checked online. They laughed themselves silly, “You don’t know how to predict the weather?” They explained to me their own methods, the presence of animals, the power of dreams, the night-time temperatures, etc. – all rooted in the surrounding environment. They exemplified the importance and resilience of place-based knowledge, the nuance provided by local environmental perspectives, and an autonomy in ecological awareness so unlike conventional dependency on external resources.
Seble Samuel
Geographer, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical
