Taking our Tsimane’ language skills to the next level!
This week, our team continues its Tsimane’ language training at the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura, strengthening our ability to communicate and collaborate across cultures. For us, learning Tsimane’ is not just about communication, vocabulary and grammar. It’s about connecting more deeply with the ethnobiological knowledge and cultural practices of the Tsimane’ people. This knowledge […]
Wood, water and people
Palizadas, logjams forming when large pieces of wood fall into river channels, accumulate downstream, and eventually block the flow, are relatively common in small, narrow Amazonian rivers with forested banks and slow, meandering currents. When a logjam completely obstructs the river, the resulting flooding can inundate vast areas around it, sometimes causing forest dieback in […]
IEK-CHANGES featured in a keynote lecture in Armenia
The IEK-CHANGES project was recently presented at the international conference “Biological Sciences and Environmental Solutions for the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals”, held from 24–26 September 2025 at Yerevan State University (Armenia). The project’s Principal Investigator, Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, was invited by the Embassy of Spain in Armenia to deliver a Keynote Plenary Lecture entitled “The […]
Across the Tsimane’ ancestral lands – Ixiamas
Jorge, our team’s travelling geographer, has ventured beyond the Maniqui River, the main focus of our research, and is now on a journey across the ancestral Tsimane’ homelands. He recently visited the Ixiamas area in the La Paz department, the northernmost region inhabited by the Tsimane’ people, which has been heavily affected by logging for […]
A workshop about change
In early September we organised a workshop about local perceptions of cultural and environmental change. More accurately put, we held two workshops in tandem: to organise more comfortable discussion spaces there was one workshop with the women of the village, and another with the men. It became very clear from these meetings that the Tsimane’ […]
Sven Kock has successfully defended his MSc thesis!
We are delighted to share that Sven Kock has successfully defended his MSc thesis “Characterizing Tree Diversity Patterns in Indigenous Peoples’ Lands: Addressing Often-Overlooked Data Limitations and Biases”, developed within the framework of the IEK-CHANGES project and co-supervised by Jorge C. Llopis and Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares. A student in the MSc programme in Interdisciplinary Studies in […]
The house of the IEK-CHANGES Project is now built!
We are thrilled to share that the IEK-CHANGES project now has its home in the heart of the Bolivian Amazon! Built by our Tsimane’ friends using locally-sourced materials such as Geonoma deversa leaves for the roof and Gynerium sagittatum culms for the walls, this house is more than a shelter: it is a space of […]
Pilot-testing research, honouring knowledge
The IEK-CHANGES team is now deeply immersed in the Amazon, working hand in hand with our extraordinary Tsimane’ co-researchers to pilot-test our research protocols. Every method is carefully crafted to be culturally appropriate, ensuring that each and every question is fully understandable in Tsimane’ language, and that the research we do truly reflects local perspectives. […]
Documenting Tsimane’ mushroom knowledge
No one has ever written about the relations the Tsimane’ have with the realm of fungi! We’re excited as we are now starting to document the Tsimane’ knowledge of mushrooms, a topic so far has been overlooked by the scientific community. Interestingly, only few Tsimane’ people seem to know the names of mushrooms or their […]
Advancing our botanical collections
In August 2025, the IEK-CHANGES team visited the Estación Biológica del Beni to launch the next stage of our botanical collections. Plant samples are now being carefully prepared in the field and sent to the National Herbarium of Bolivia for taxonomic identification. This work is a cornerstone of our analysis of Tsimane’ ethnobotanical knowledge systems, […]
