Cultural Landscapes and Resource Rights
In many parts of the world, people have developed strong emotional, artistic, spiritual, historical and ecological links to place. This social attachment to place is central to local people’s sense of self, forming an integral part of the 
Ese Eja elder and girl cross the Heath River close to an ancestral settlement, in an area currently included within the Bahuaja-Sonene (Peru) and Madidi (Bolivia) National Parks. Photo: M. Alexiadessocial institutions, knowledge and practices that the intricate, vital and fluid relationship that shapes cultural landscapes.
PPI’s Cultural Landscapes and Resource Rights program is built on three premises.
First, that much of the world’s biodiversity, with all of its tangible and intangible values, is the product of the interaction between humans and their environment. There are, in other words, few landscapes that are not ‘cultural landscapes’, even if the ‘culture’ element has been lost, forgotten, ignored or destroyed.
Second, because cultural landscapes lie at the core of human experience, they offer a unique language, medium and opportunity to allow emplaced peoples to reflect upon, articulate and defend their place in a rapidly changing world, and in ways that guarantee their rights to self-determination.
Third, because the attachment to place is profound, ongoing and dynamic, initiatives related to cultural landscapes offer an invaluable opportunity to address issues relating to social, spiritual and ecological alienation and disenfranchisement, both in urban and rural areas, and both among emplaced and displaced peoples.
PPI does not develop or implement individual projects, but rather supports existing initiatives, responding whenever possible specific local demands for assistance, either by channeling funds, sharing technical assistance, or facilitating exchanges between researchers, practitioners, activists, institutions and initiatives sharing similar or complementary goals and approaches. The kinds of activities we seek to support include:
- Participatory processes to map areas of ancestral use and occupation, and to document the environmental and social knowledge associated with these areas.
- Assisting emplaced, yet often disenfranchised, peoples address the threat of physical, territorial and social alienation following predatory invasion of their lands by loggers, mining and oil companies, colonization schemes, etc.
- Improving or developing new tools and mechanisms to allow the exchange of appropriate knowledge, experience, technology and skills between resource users, practitioners, scientists and environmental justice activists.
Ese Eja in a community social cartography exercise, Madre de Dios River, Bolivia, 2007. Photo: M. Alexiades
Ese Eja from the community of Sonene, Peru, mapping ancestrally-occupied lands. Photo: M. Alexiades
Cultural Landscapes and Resource Rights Activities
Click on the links below to learn more about PPI's Cultural Landscapes and Resource Rights program's field activities.
Ese Eja Cultural Landscapes and Land Rights (Bolivia, Peru)
Harakmbut Ancestral Landscape and Resource Rights (Peru)
Participatory video and grassroots indigenous mobilisation in Madre de Dios, Peru