{"id":26921,"date":"2018-01-30T13:20:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T18:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/?p=26921"},"modified":"2018-01-30T14:33:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:33:04","slug":"lets-apply-ethno-ecological-approach-cities-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/2018\/01\/30\/lets-apply-ethno-ecological-approach-cities-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Apply an Ethno-ecological Approach to Cities and their Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Una versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol, aqui<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Our culture must evolve as in a cycle, and return to ancestral wisdom: a true, conscious, responsible, comprehensive and generous biophilia.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Activities related to urban development usually reflect the prevailing global cultural characteristics of a society. At the same time, other aspects of the local culture remain silently persistent, tied to more intimate and traditional values than those the present trend of globalization motivates or allows. For example, the stiffening of the meandering flow of water courses and the indiscriminate use of foreign vegetal species are advanced supported by the argument of their use in other latitudes in developed countries, ignoring the traditional dialogue relationship water-human being and ignore the local biodiversity wealth.<\/p>\n

Derived from the overlap of local and global cultural nuances, from each social community emerges a way of understanding nature and establishing a relationship with it. This fact, and also the fact that the planet is currently immersed in an increasingly urban development trend of no return, the question is: What is the best way to integrate nature and city?<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Here some alternative routes to an answer, none of which are mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n

(1) To \u201cinject\u201d nature in cities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A long-standing and generalized practice has been to complement urban constructions with a few \u201cnice\u201d trees or plants. A practice that often ignores actual ecological values, such as: natural morphology, rivers or streams, and biodiversity. Yolanda van Heezik<\/a> notes: The aesthetic values of many people still reflect preferences for an Arcadian\/Romantic landscape form, seen in parks with widely spaced trees that in New Zealand are usually exotic species, scattered across a mown lawn with no understory\u2014not the best habitat to support wildlife.\u00a0<\/em>Although the text refers to New Zealand, it applies to many other places in the world, such as most Colombian cities, the motivation for this text.<\/p>\n

(2) To rediscover and reestablish the nature that existed there before?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The admirable ecological intention of reestablishing the previous ecosystem, from the scarce traces left, and besides the urban expansion, is the purpose of the Ecological Restoration Projects, promoted by Colombian environmental policies. Unfortunately, the current immediatist perspective makes that this good intention be considered idealistic by builders and real state developers and hindered by infrastructure development and building priorities. Most of the time, when this type of intervention is undertaken, it ends up being a cosmetic solution, or distraction in the face of environmental requirements. A more responsible attitude towards an actual solution is lacking and environmental authorities are getting more and more lax.<\/p>\n

(3) To maintain and enhance the nature that is left?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certain wise urban development planning approaches take into account the provision of open public areas, coinciding with outstanding features of the natural territory. Nevertheless, the unbridled building activity diminishes and fragments those areas to the consequent detriment of their character and value, if not obliterating them completely. Unfortunately, lay people are not aware of the scam that comes with the offer of a seductive place to live, in dense buildings with views that will soon disappear and that themselves represent an unsolved environmental impact. It is the case, fo,r example of dense buildings of tight apartments that entail the need for parking lots to the detriment of green free areas.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Forced insertion of dense buildings in green spaces that used to let a breath to the urban environment. Sector of the city of Medell\u00edn, Colombia, seen from the Metro-cable. Photo: Gloria Aponte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(4) To rehabilitate the remaining or weakened nature?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is an even more difficult task. There are many urban functionality factors that hinder and come before this sound purpose. In places already affected by deforestation, the hardening or invasion of stream borders and flattening of topography it is \u00a0almost impossible to go backwards in order to reestablish natural components and dynamics. Hard infrastructure and urbanization usually prevail.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2. Infrastructure imposed without bioengineering considerations. Sector of the city of Medell\u00edn, Colombia, seen from the Metro-cable. Photo: Gloria Aponte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(5) All of the above?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No singular action pushed by decision makers, can on its own guarantee a sound nature-city relationship. It is to say, we need to promote an approach that gathers an interweaves responses to the multiple determinants involved in a living habitat, as it is our planet earth where cities appear as concentrations of artificial products. These manmade habitats have to follow the laws of life in their host if they expect a successful development.<\/p>\n

In this sense, Carlos Eduardo Maldonado<\/a>, in a recent article, invites us: To think as nature does, <\/em>alluding to the way in which wise nature responds simultaneously to various problems and functions.<\/p>\n

A best approach would pursue an integral holistic proposal, but definitely it will not be enough if culture is not involved before and during the implementation process. More precisely if the knowledge baggage of ancestral cultures, who have been closer to nature, is not involved.<\/p>\n

Although our culture is not intentionally against nature, we are a long way away from returning nature to its proper position in terms of urban realm and values. If we rely on the dominating contemporary culture, immersed in consumerism, immediateness, anthropocentrism, and egocentrism, the nature in cities is condemned to failure. It is important to understand and culturally valuate multiple aspects related to social relationship with nature.<\/p>\n

As Lincoln Garland<\/a> expresses: The power of the natural world to energize creativity has of course long been understood by artists, philosophers, composers and poets. Science is catching up.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is true that natural sciences have been quite rational and that tradition could be enriched looking at them with the right hemisphere of the brain. It will help for the purpose of integration between city\u2014product of creativity, and nature\u2014object of scientific understanding. However, the select groups mentioned by Garland have to be complemented bringing the idea of nature closer to people, spreading the awareness of nature, at diverse levels, as more than a mere supplier of goods.<\/p>\n

Those levels of awareness are related to the biophilia concept. The first: \u201cbio\u201d is not just about useful resources, as it is frequently understood. As an example, in Colombia, many people when hearing the word \u201cecosystem\u201d think of trees, and their direct benefit: shade, independence of uses, or aesthetic and sometimes capricious complacency.<\/p>\n

I propose the term bio-value<\/em>-philia <\/strong>in an attempt to stress a dimension that overrides selfish utilitarian interests, and involves the appreciation of values related to life in general.<\/p>\n

The utilitarian approach is evident even in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A direct mention to nature (clean water and basic sanitation), appears only in sixth place, but with an emphasis on consumption, not towards the care of water as part of nature cycles or dynamic. The first five objectives (1.end of poverty, 2. zero hunger, 3.health and well-being, 4.education, 5.gender equality) do not directly mention nature, although the first three clearly depend on it.<\/p>\n

The second level of awareness is this: \u201cbio\u201d is not static. It is not just \u201cthe tree\u201d as static as a lamp post or a piece of furniture in a public space, but a process; continuous, permanent, without harmful and unnecessary interruptions which hinder the carbon cycle, indispensable for all type of life. It is not just the water measured in liters but its cycle, all the creative roles at play during its complex trail. \u00a0Here the term would be bio-cycles<\/em>-philia<\/strong>, to focus on life dynamics. It sounds obvious but it is not reflected in daily practice. Our society, characterized by immediacy, has no patience to follow the time of nature, so it prefers to ignore it. This is a call to recover the good practice of previous cultures that understood varied temporal dimensions and their effects.<\/p>\n

About this, the words of Ken Yeang<\/a>, in a TNOC essay, are pertinent: Instead of focusing on building biophilia of cities, we should be focusing on making cities into constructed ecosystems that are proxies and extensions of naturally-occurring ecosystems.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Figure 3. If a dialogue exists, it would be wiser to apply natural principles on buildings, that force nature to appear as a manmade object. Bucaramanga, Colombia. Photo: Octavio .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is an imminent need to return to ancestral knowledge, to those cultures that understood the importance of natural processes, of the elementary cycles that seem to be forgotten in an unbridled eagerness to build, win money and enrich oneself.<\/p>\n

If we could understand and internalize natural cycles at all levels of society and people ages, we would be more willing to valuate nature and of course nearer to a true biophilia. In Colombia, for example, it will help society in general, common people, professionals and authorities, to value the p\u00e1ramos<\/em>, scientifically recognized as the best water factories of the planet, 50 percent of which are located in Colombian territory. The p\u00e1ramos<\/em> is one of our main wealth.<\/p>\n

It is imperative to empower those legitimate traces of national cultural assets; of which Colombia has plenty, although they are still to be discovered. As an example, Figure 4 shows the Nasa ethnic group calendar, built according to their knowledge of natural phenomena and traditions. The Nasa calendar has undergone transformations based on two factors; acculturation, on the one hand, which brought the use of pesticides and technical irrigation, and climatic change that Nasa are clearly aware of.<\/p>\n

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Figure 4. Nasa calendar. Source: Catherine Ramos et al. Retrieved from:\u00a0https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/259688716<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The knowledge of local communities about “epochal change markers” or “biotemporal markers” are more imperceptible in the eyes of scientists, but because of this, they are no less interesting for research on climate and its changes, argues Catherine Ramos, et. al<\/a>. The authors illustrate the statement with proved experiences, such as the indigenous groups which, following their beliefs, moved to higher lands just before the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and were saved from its onslaught.<\/p>\n

That sort of relationship with natural phenomena starts with a conscious reading of the territory identity. An example of this can be seen in the Bogot\u00e1 National Museum in the exhibition called Endulzar la palabra <\/em>(\u201cSweetening the word\u201d), that gathers examples on the territorial recognition by numerous ancestral Colombian ethnic groups (Figure 5).<\/p>\n

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Figure 5. Wiwa culture interpretation of the territory, in diverse interconnected components. Mounting by researchers and art curator of the exhibition \u201cEndulzar la palabra\u201d. \u00a0National Museum, Bogot\u00e1, Colombia. December 2017 – February 2018. Source: Catherine Ramos et al. Photo: Gloria Aponte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In summary, I propose we apply Ethnoecology<\/a>, a meeting point between nature and culture within cities, where most of the population lives. In order to achieve this we must dig into the remaining knowledge of indigenous ethnic groups (the actual ecological native<\/em> <\/a>) and also into inhabitants of urban peripheries who still keep vanishing links to the connivance with natural cycles \u00a0because of their peasant, indigenous or afro origins.<\/p>\n

Gloria Aponte<\/strong>
\nMedell\u00edn
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

On The Nature of Cities<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Apliquemos un enfoque Etno-ecol\u00f3gico a las ciudades y su naturaleza<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Nuestra cultura debe evolucionar como en un ciclo y volver a la sabidur\u00eda ancestral: una biofilia verdadera, consciente, responsable, amplia y generosa.<\/blockquote><\/figure>Generalmente las actividades relacionadas con el desarrollo urbano, reflejan las caracter\u00edsticas prevalentes en la cultura global. Simult\u00e1neamente, otros aspectos de la cultura local permanecen en silenciosa persistencia, atadas a valores m\u00e1s tradicionales e \u00edntimos que aquellos que la actual tendencia de globalizaci\u00f3n motiva o permite. Por ejemplo, el endurecimiento de los flujos me\u00e1ndricos de los cursos de agua y el uso indiscriminado de vegetaci\u00f3n for\u00e1nea correspondiente a otras latitudes, se adelantan con base en el argumento de que se usan en pa\u00edses desarrollados, mientras desconocen la tradicional relaci\u00f3n dial\u00f3gica agua-ser humano o ignoran la riqueza en biodiversidad local.<\/p>\n

Derivado del traslapo de rasgos culturales locales y globales, de cada comunidad social emerge una manera de entender la naturaleza y de establecer relaciones con ella. Este hecho, como tambi\u00e9n el hecho de que el planeta est\u00e1 actualmente inmerso en una tendencia creciente de desarrollo urbano de no retorno, la pregunta es: Cu\u00e1l es la mejor manera de integrar naturaleza y ciudad?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Se presentan aqu\u00ed algunas rutas para responder a la pregunta, sin que sean ellas mutuamente excluyentes.<\/p>\n