After five months in 2025 and four months this year, Jorge has completed his fieldwork phase within the IEK-Changes project! During the last four months, Jorge focused on finishing his work on the Maniqui River’s logjam, investigating the potential benefits that sustainable tourism can have for local Tsimane’ communities, while continuing to interview key knowledge holders to better understand processes of forest change in the ancestral Tsimane’ lands, as well as as the role of culture and language vitality in these dynamics. Jorge further supported Nate and Alex in their MSc research, conducting many weeks of field-based research with both of them.
Wrapping up, since April, Jorge worked across 32 communities, conducting more than 200 surveys and some 30 interviews and group discussions, stacking tens of hours of drone flights, which served to collect thousands of mapping and illustrative photos and hours of video footage. Although possibly less exciting than doing fieldwork, the next data cleaning and analysis steps promise to unearth important finding that will shape the next stages of the IEK-Changes project and help increase our understanding of changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge.
Jorge’s work would not having possible without the collaboration of many people to whom he’s deeply thankful, particularly Manuel Roca, Salomón Hiza, Ofir Hiza, Esther Conde, Tomás Huanca and Juan Pablo Ticona. Thanks to all friends and colleagues, and looking forward to seeing you all again in the future!
