Vol. 32 No. 1 (2017)

“Face-to-face with the Caracara”: a proposal to reconnect people and nature using birding

Abstract

Outdoor recreational practices reflect the diverse ways of living together with biodiversity. One of these practices, birdwatching or birding, has gained world-wide popularity, favouring the socializing of people and nature through birds. Birding also can promote an ethical relationship with birds, people and their culture. In this work, we present “biocultural birding” as a theoretical–practical proposal to enrich birding ethics using ecological and cultural narratives associated with birds in an observation–reflection cycle. We integrate interdisciplinary research with metaphor composition and guided birdwatching activities in Puerto Williams, Chile. The Chimango Caracara (Milvago chimango) is capable of linking ecological and social systems in the Southern Cone. We communicate these findings using the metaphors “marine-terrestrial link” and “face-to-face with the caracara”, which we constructed based on ecological research and Emmanuel Lévinas’ expression “face-to-face”. Using the criteria of referential, social, environmental and sustainability adequacy, we evaluated how these metaphors bring together participants and birds, their ecosystems and the cultures in which they participate. We recommend to adapt this proposal with other birds and contexts, as a way to diversify human–nature relationships and promote respect for birds and cultures in socio-ecological systems.

References

How to cite

J. Cristóbal Pizarro, Jaime Rau, Christopher B. Anderson (2017). “Face-to-face with the Caracara”: a proposal to reconnect people and nature using birding. El Hornero, Vol. 32 No. 1 (2017), 39-53. https://doi.org/10.56178/eh.v32i1.539

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License: CC BY-NC 4.0