Sharing knowledge on biodiversity: Meeting of the Yanesha and Shipibo peoples

On 26 November 2024, a meeting on traditional knowledge on biodiversity took place between the Yanesha and Shipibo peoples in the community of Unión de la Selva, territory of the Yanesha people in the region of Pasco, Peru.

Unión de la Selva is a community that is part of the Transformative Pathways project being implemented by CHIRAPAQ (Centre for Indigenous Cultures of Peru) in Peru.

The meeting, which was organised by CHIRAPAQ in coordination with FECONAU (Federation of Native Communities of Ucayali and its tributaries), received almost 70 participants, including Shipibos and Shipibas from FECONAU and its base communities of Nueva Betania, Nueva Bélgica, Santa Clara de Yarinacocha, San Francisco de Yarinacocha and Santa Teresita de Cashibococha, and Yanesha community members from the communities of Unión de la Selva and Santa Rosa de Pichanaz, as well as from the Santo Domingo district.

A sharing of stories and knowledge

During the first part of the meeting, the two peoples went through the art of remembering the history of the host – the Yanesha, and their constant relationship with other peoples of Peru in the exchange of products and knowledge. They also recalled the social processes they experienced during the 20th century, such as the consolidation of their territorial spaces in native communities.

There was a sharing of traditional dances and songs, and then the meeting participants would visit the handicraft centre called “Shollet” in the community of Unión de la Selva, which CHIRAPAQ has been supporting in its implementation with the Transformative Pathways.

It was very enriching for the participants to hear about the entrepreneurship of Yanesha mothers using native biodiversity materials to sustain their family economies, but also to embark on the process of recovering indigneous knowledge. For example, asking grandfathers and grandmothers for traditional knowledge to find or define the best colour fixatives for textiles. Thus, in Shollet, the Yanesha showed how to paint with matico (Pipper sp.) or walnut (Juglans neotropica), while the Shipibo shared the figures of their traditional textiles, such as kené, and their meanings.

Food sovereignty through the seed bank

One of the most enriching moments of the meeting was the visit to the community seed bank, which housed native varieties of pole beans, pallares, peanuts, maize and others. For the Shipibo, in a context where their territorial reality in the Ucayali region is overwhelmed by large-scale monoculture, especially oil palm, the visit to the seed bank would open the door to imaginaries of ensuring food sovereignty using their own crops and the memory of traditional food diets.

“Visiting an initiative like this seed bank presents us with other options. Why can’t the Shipibo also generate our own seed bank?” – Apu Ronal Garcia, FECONAU

Something that also appealed to the Shipibo attendees was that the seed bank implemented in Unión de la Selva also seeks to ensure the sustainability of the initiative, in reciprocity with biodiversity and the community’s social fabric.

“You ask for one kilo of seeds from the bank, and after your harvest you will have to return two,” said Ruth Francisco, a Yanesha promoter in the community.

Medicinal plant knowledge and biodiversity

Then came the exchange of medicinal plant knowledge between peoples, where they shared knowledge of master and healing plants such as chacruna (Psychotria viridis) and ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi), as well as the use of cashew (Anacardium occidentale) or huito (Genipa americana), the making of mocahuas or pottery and the use of a mixture of clays and ashes from the bark of native trees.

Finally, the Yaneshas shared reflections on why and for what purpose they are monitoring their local biodiversity, and on learning to use tools such as GPS, where beyond taking geographic data, it should be used to look at and feel their forests and understand how they are changing over time.

The meeting closed with traditional Yanesha games, and both peoples promised to meet again in the near future to continue sharing knowledge of native biodiversity.