Cultural Landscapes and Biodiversity de Devon G. Peña

Résumé du document

This article is a basic but global study of a specific ethno-ecological case in northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado by Devon G. Peña. The main concern of Peña is the importance of the irrigation system of the Chicano communities that have been living in the Culebra micro-basin for around 150 years (after the Sangre de Cristo land grant issued in 1844). The importance of the irrigation system, is that it is based on the acequia, or gravity ditch system. This not only consists in its environmentally adaptive and preservative capability but also in that it ensures the conservation of self-governing communities in the Upper Río Grande which, in return, enable a local and environmentally respectful "management of water rights and stewardship of the watershed commons" that increase biodiversity.

Extraits

[...] Cultural Landscapes and Biodiversity de Devon G. Peña Peña, Devon G. Cultural Landscapes and Biodiversity: The Ethnoecology of an Upper Río Grande Watershed Commons. Ethnoecology; (pp.107-132) This article is a basic but global study of a specific ethnoecological case in northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado by Devon G. Peña. The main concern of Peña is the importance of the irrigation system of the Chicano communities that have been living in the Culebra microbasin for around 150 years (after the Sangre de Cristo land grant issued in 1844). [...]

[...] This system is moreover particularly well-adapted to the specific landscape of the Culebra Mountain Tract. From that, Peña can then describe better the Chicano agrosystem characterized by thirteen elements according to him, which he will describe more precisely during the last part of the article: a riparian long-lot (which represents type of cultural landscape compatible with the biogeographical properties of high- altitude, arid-land environment” and “providing every family with access to most of the life zones in the locality” enhancing various ecosystems; the acequia irrigation system; the “clustering of wildlife habitats and farming landscapes”[4]; the use of heirloom crops; a natural pest and weed control; an agropastoralism using different species of crops and livestock; polycultures and rotational intercropping; conservation practices; a low level of mechanization preferring human and animal power instead of fuel energy; the practice of restoration ecology; autarkic presumption; access to traditional common lands; “self-organized and complex set of relationships with a variety of market and governmental institutions”[5]. [...]

[...] Cultural Landscapes and Biodiversity: The Ethnoecology of an Upper Río Grande Watershed Commons. Ethnoecology. P. 134. [...]

[...] Through our community project in relationship to UVic community gardens, we need to build a water catchment and irrigation system; my deeper understanding of the sustainable acequia irrigation system and its advantages in terms of environmental respect, will hopefully play a great role in that project and may lead moreover to the progressive creation (at least for me) of a balanced and respectful relationship with Mother Earth. Peña, Devon G. Cultural Landscapes and Biodiversity: The Ethnoecology of an Upper Río Grande Watershed Commons. Ethnoecology. P Ibid. [...]

[...] In that regard, these questions cannot be fully answered within the scope of this article critique, given the fact they enhance and need much deeper researches, and the adoption of a specific political stance. The question of self-governance is complex if one considers the current political issues about indigenous self-governance in Canada for instance. This concept is differently understood by both, in that case, the Canadian government and Canadian First Nations. I cannot personally take the risk of giving a precise definition of this concept, due to my lack of knowledge concerning both the two different definitions given by the two political sides in that context. [...]