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Ricardo Rozzi and Earl Gibbons
Ricardo Rozzi (front) explaining what can be seen to Earl Gibbons (back, wearing a yellow cap), UNT's associate vice president for international education, as Gibbons looks through a magnifying glass. Photo credit: Rodman.
Mock magnifying glass
One of the park's mock magnifying glasses signaling the location of Dicranoloma sp., a common type of ground moss. Photo credit: Jay Rodman, director of communication for UNT's College of Arts and Sciences.
Ricardo Rozzi and Ricardo Lagos
The former president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos (right) observing and listening to Ricardo Rozzi (left) explain the ecological relevance of the "miniature forest of Cape Horn" at Omora Park. Photo credit: Alex Ibañez.
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Work on Sub-Antarctic biocultural conservation in South America earns UNT professor award
DENTON (UNT), Texas -- For generations, the Yahgans, a tribal group living in the southern part of Chile and Argentina, have orally passed down their knowledge about the southernmost forested landscapes of the world. Today, only one fluent speaker of Yahgan, "Grandmother" Cristina Calderón, is alive. During the past eight years, an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Chilean native Ricardo Rozzi, a University of North Texas associate professor of philosophy and religion studies, has researched and worked to preserve Yahgan ecological knowledge and portions of their threatened language. Among the results of the collaborative efforts of artists, scientists, and philosophers from UNT and the University of Magallanes in Chile, supported in part by the Chilean government and private entities, are a dictionary and a book designed by children of the Yahgan community, a group with about 100 remaining members. The dictionary includes drawings by Yahgan children and a CD with the names of the plants and animals of Cape Horn recorded in the Yahgan, Spanish and English languages. The material was prepared with Calderón and the children of the community. The English names were recorded by children of UNT researchers. The research activities are centered at Omora Ethnobotanical Park, a research, education and conservation center for the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve located on Navarino Island in the Antarctic Province of Chile. Rozzi is one of 15 individuals who co-founded the park in 2000. His work is focused on biocultural conservation, the practice of preserving environmental knowledge of the indigenous people of the region by researching and documenting the region's unique biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge. Through the park, educational activities are provided to elementary schools in nearby Puerto Williams, Chile. Along with the educational programming for the local population, field courses on Sub-Antarctic biocultural conservation are offered by UNT and UMAG for students and researchers of universities in the United States and Latin America. Additionally, informal education is conducted through ecotourism activities. Rozzi created the concept of "tourism with a hand-lens" to call attention to the diversity of little plants and insects that characterize the region and to promote ecotourism as a tool for biocultural conservation. "‘Tourism with a hand-lens' demands as much scientific research as it does interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration at local and international levels," he said. For the tours, researchers and artists are working on the design of trails, which will include mock magnifying glasses located throughout the park to act as makers and visually draw attention to examples of the region's biodiversity for tourists. The magnifying glasses are metal structures about 2.5 feet tall. Park visitors also will be given real magnifying glasses on the tour so they can examine the plants and insects more closely. The trails will be run by tour guides from Lakautaia Ecolodge, located at the border of the park, who will be trained by UNT and UMAG researchers and graduate students. Training for the tours is funded by the Chilean government in an effort to ensure the tours are scientifically guided and benefit the local economy. For his work at Omora Park, Rozzi recently received the 2008 Science and Practice of Ecology and Society Award. The award, which is sponsored by the Foundation for Scientific Symbiosis in the Netherlands, is given annually to an individual or organization that successfully brings together different scientific fields to close the gap between ecology and society. Rozzi's award will include a stipend of 1,000 euros, which is equivalent to about $1,300. A feature article will be written about him and his work by his nominator, Christopher Anderson, a fellow researcher at the park through UMAG and the Chilean Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity. The article and an announcement of Rozzi's selection as the award recipient will be published in the December issue of "Ecology and Society." On Rozzi's behalf, the award money will be given to the Center for Environmental Philosophy in UNT's Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies as a contribution to the UNT-Chile Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, which coordinates a field course on biocultural conservation each winter through UNT and UMAG at Omora Park and the Sub-Antarctic ecoregion. The series of courses, titled "Tracing Darwin's Path," addresses scientific, philosophical and indigenous ecological perspectives of the unique biocultural diversity at the southern end of the Americas. For more information about the UNT-Chile Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program and Omora Ethnobotanical Park, visit the Cape Horn Field Station website. For more information about "Ecology and Society" journal, visit the Ecology and Society website.
UNT News Service Phone Number: (940) 565-2108
Contact: Nancy Kolsti (940) 565-3509
Email: nkolsti@unt.edu
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