Empowering Indigenous students to engage in Amazon conservation

Indigenous peoples and their interactions with the natural world are crucial for Amazonian biodiversity and sustainable socioeconomic systems (Athayde et al. 2021). Developing policies for raising awareness about indigenous Amazonian languages, including concrete actions for integrating linguistic conservation, guarantee environmental justice and sustainable development in the Amazon (van der Voort et al. 2021). Engaging indigenous youth is a promising strategy, as many are willing to participate in conservation efforts (Franzolin et al. 2020), and therefore it is important to include topics about conservation, biodiversity and science in indigenous-school agendas.

In Brazil, 98% of the indigenous lands are in the northern region, known for its significant ethnic and linguistic diversity (Crisostomo et al. 2015). Young students in this area display a keen interest in local biodiversity (Franzolin et al. 2020). However, Biology textbooks poorly cover Amazonian biodiversity, often with superficial content and technical-scientific terms hindering early student learning (Leal et al. 2019). Additionally, most educational material is in Portuguese, leading to limited efforts in preserving indigenous-language diversity for future generations. To address this, we prepared three illustrated wildlife guides in Tupi-Kagwahiva, a shared language among ethnic groups in southwestern Amazonia (Fig. 1).

Figure 1
Wildlife guides focusing on frogs, venomous snakes and stream fish were translated into Tupi-Kagwahiva, a common language to various ethnic groups in southwestern Amazonia.

Publishing books in indigenous languages is a significant achievement for the democratization of science and the empowering threatened peoples and cultures by urbanization and land-use changes. However, ensuring quality entails overcoming various challenges. Finding a bilingual indigenous translator proved challenging, and even those fluent in both languages depend on their leaders’ approval to take on translation tasks. Moreover, numerous Portuguese lacked equivalents in Tupi- Kagwahiva, necessitating adjustments to the original text. Careful modification was crucial to avoid losing important information. Also, the payment for translating Portuguese into indigenous language was complicated due to the lack of appropriate regulation by research-funding agencies.

In the first book, “Kurua Humaitá Kavyra Porá”, the students will learn about the enormous variety of shapes, colors, and habits of the local frogs (Lima et al. 2023). In the second book, “Moia Humaitá Kavyra Porá”, an introduction is made to the poisonous snakes and their main characteristics that can help identify potentially dangerous species (Fraga et al. 2023). The third book, “Pira Yae Rekwarupiva’ea”, presents the main fish groups found in the network of small forest streams (igarapés) and offers insights into regional fish diversity and curiosities about stream-fish behavior (Stegmann et al. 2023).

At the end of this initiative, we expect to fill an education gap and provide high-quality indigenous language educational material. This will contribute to building more respectful and integrated relationships between scientific and traditional knowledge. Young indigenous people are fundamental actors to ensure biocultural diversity protection, which can only be achieved if the multilingual characteristic of the Amazon is not considered an obstacle, but rather a rich legacy and an opportunity. With this initiative we show that, however complex the transliteration of technical-scientific knowledge into the indigenous language may be, this is an essential initial step for other initiatives and enables a reframing of the way education in indigenous schools has been configured and applied.

REFERENCES

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  19 Apr 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  27 July 2023
• Accepted
  13 Sept 2023