ABSTRACT
The above statement was issued in 1989 by the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) in an effort to reach out to conservation and development organizations. It plays to the most important of our remaining stereotypes concerning indigenous peoples and their relationship with the land – namely, that indigenous peoples have a special relationship with their land, a relationship that has prevented them from destroying their biological heritage. According to this stereotype, this relationship will enable them to continue to conserve their lands for future generations. When it was issued, the initial reaction to COICA’s statement was enthusiastic (Chapin, 2004). It coincided with a surge in the interest in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that some had hoped would become a breakthrough for applied anthropology (Sillitoe, 1998). However, in the intervening years, enthusiasm for partnerships with indigenous communities has waned among conservationists (Chapin, 2004). I hope to re-ignite enthusiasm for creating such partnerships, using traditional knowledge of birds to reframe the discussion of the relationship between traditional societies and biodiversity.
