IPSI Case Study Summary Sheet
Basic Information
Title of case study
Framing cultural ecosystem services in the Andes: Utawallu as sentinels of values for biocultural heritage
conservation
Submitting IPSI member organization(s)University of Georgia, Geography Department, Neotropical Montology Collaboratory

Other contributing organization(s) (IPSI members and/or non-members)
Ethnostek

Author(s) and affiliation(s)Fausto O. Sarmiento (University of Georgia, Geography Department, Neotropical Montology Collaboratory), César
Cotacachi (Ethnostek)

Format of case study

Manuscript

LanguageEnglish(manuscript or audiovisual)

Keywords
Reification; syncretic landscape; Imbakucha; Otavalo; Andes; Ecuador
Date of submission (or update, if this is an update of an existing
13 December 2019case study)

Web link (of the case study orlead organization if available formore information)

https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:7506/SITR_vol5_fullset_web.pdf#page=41

Geographical Information
Country (where site(s) or activities described in the case study are located – can be multiple, or even “global”)
Ecuador
Location(s) (within the country or countries – leave blank if specific location(s) cannot be identified)Otavalo and Cotacachi, Imbabura Province
Longitude/latitude or Google Maps link (if location is identified)
https://www.google.com/maps/place/0%C2%B012'35.0%22N+78%C2%B018'35.0%22W/@0.2097222,78.3119109,9z/
Ecosystem(s)ForestGrassland
Agriculturalx
In-land waterx
CoastalDryland
Mountainx
Urban/peri-urban
Other (Please specify)
Socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the area
The Imbakucha Basin contains the largest Andean lake in Ecuador and is located in the province of Imbabura innorthern Ecuador. Here, the Kichwa ethnicity is the more prevalent of the two Utawallu groups, which areseparated by the administrative county boundaries: The Kayampi to the southeastern reaches of the lake
towards the ‘Cayambe’ volcano, and the Utawallu, referred to as ‘Cotacacheños’ (Kutakachikuna), living
westward and the ‘Otavaleños’ (Utawallukuna) living northward of the lake.
Description of human-nature interactions in the area
Within this vibrant influence of local culture and the pressure of globalization, nature conservation has been challenged by
the need for production of staple foods as well as other labour options, and policies have favoured wilderness
preservation instead of cultural landscape values. Curiously, the Otavalo have no translation for “wilderness”, and theircosmological vision includes a nature-culture hybrid of respect and reciprocity, typical of Andean communities and aconundrum for mountain research literature. However, in Ecuador, the commodification of nature has allowed forecosystem services to become the new guiding principle of new payment for environmental services (PES) policies; yet,emphasis goes to provisioning, and regulating functions.

Contents
Status (“ongoing” or “completed”)
Completed
Period (MM/YY to MM/YY)
Rationale (why activities or policies described, or information shared in the case study are needed)
Our study aims to highlight the contribution of the original people’s cultural values in prioritizing biodiversity
conservation amidst the pressures of modernity, in what is known as ‘syncretic’ landscapes with hybrid cultural
manifestations of the indigenous and the greater Western tradition. Our main objective is to support thenarrative of biocultural heritage conservation as an option of sustainable development in socio-ecologicalproduction mountainscapes. We consider this shift of conservation paradigm (from nature pristine to natureculture manufacture) of significance if we were to curve the tendency of biodiversity loss due to bothdeforestation as well as acculturation.
Objectives (goals of activities or policies described, or of producing the case study)
We describe the qualities of a cultural landscape kept within modernity by the local people of the Utawallu
valley in Imbabura province of Northern Ecuador. Conservation efforts to incorporate cultural diversityalongside the biological diversity of the significant protected area in Western Ecuador are needed in order toimprove protection of the traditional ancestral farmscape of the Imbakucha Basin. The different characteristicsof the socio-ecological production landscape present in the site should lead to a successful initiation of a newwave of conservation in which Andean cultures are prioritized and cultural ecosystem services (re)valued.
Activities and/or practices employed

We developed ethnographic research around the most important sacred sites identified by the community
members and made a photographic survey of the biocultural elements that are part of the heritage of theUtawallu runakuna. For the first time, a map of the historic sites of religious significance was produced and an
inventory of the major biodiversity components was prepared. Along with forest-páramo dynamics, weidentified boundary layers for cultural ecosystem services and rectified criteria to consider the Benefits fromNature to People offered with cultural values in this biocultural heritage area.
Results
Incorporating the sacred dimension is only one of many ways to achieve integration of CES into biocultural heritage
preservation. By presenting the uniqueness of the Utawallu and their mountainscape, we seek to sensitize international
audiences in helping break the trend for protecting nature only because of its utilitarian value, commoditizing the servicesof nature (such as providing, regulating or supporting the physical content of the landscape or phenosystem), but also forprotecting the nature/culture hybrid of the present—mainly because of the contributions from nature to people (such as
intangibles, social and landscape values for the psychosocial mindscape or cryptosystem), including the Andean identity.

Lessons learned (factors in success or failure, challenges and opportunities)
By continuing to consider Andean forests and ‘páramo’ grasslands as ‘natural’ ecosystems, instead of syncretic,manufactured SEPLs, conservationists and government agencies are hindering the (re)affirmation of thecultural identity of the ‘Otavaleños’; instead, they are bolstering the hegemony of a foreign concept ofconservation based on consumption-linked, species-oriented conservation and a forced “pristine” conceptualframework that separates the human dimension from everything else, rather than observing the ancestralcosmological vision of the Utawallukuna, integrating the Andean trilemma for a comprehensive CES valuation.
Key messages
More research must be conducted into sacred site conservation and its relation to spirituality, as well as into
the objectification of landscape features, ecological knowledge, ecotourism, environmental education andenvironmental ethics. Additionally, future studies in Imbakucha should include investigations of theadaptations of Utawallu communities to the ever-changing cultural environment surrounding them. Thesestudies should index the reification of landscape attributes, and formal protected area status should be given
to the main features of the landscape with appropriate designations.
Relationship to other IPSI activities (if the case study is related to any other IPSI collaborative activities, case studies, etc.)
This case study originally appeared in the Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review v. 5.
Funding (any relevant information about funding of activities or projects described in the case study)

Contributions to Global Agendas
CBD Aichi Biodiversity Targets (https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/)
The table below shows based on the self-evaluation by author(s). ⚫ and ◼ indicates the “direct” or “indirect” contributions to theCBD’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets respectively to which the work described in this case study contributes to.

Strategic Goal A◼

Strategic Goal B◼

Strategic Goal C◼

Strategic Goal D

Strategic Goal E

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⚫

⚫

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs)
The table below shows based on the self-evaluation by author(s). ⚫ and ◼ indicates the “direct” or “indirect” contributions to theSDGs respectively to which the work described in this case study contributes to.
◼

◼

◼