Details
David shows the flag of his Mapuche people
Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles and events posted prior to July 1, 2020, refer to the School's name at that time.
Summary
ELTI alumnus David Ordenes is a Chilean philosopher, environmental educator and writer, deeply committed to ecological restoration and the revival of the traditional Mapuche culture in his country. By promoting the first Agroecological Restoration course in Chile, David hoped to “attract many people to restoration, so it won’t remain in our territory as an exclusive discipline for the hermetic academy and its professionals.” Through this course, David hoped to inspire a heterogeneous Chilean audience to embrace the principles and values of ecological restoration in synergy with agroecological food production.
David received support to coordinate the first Chilean version of the Agroecological Restoration Course in partnership between ELTI, CIPAV and SOCLA (the Latin-American Society for Agroecology). The event took place on March 7-8, 2019, at the Agroecological School of Pirque, located in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago and was offered to 45 Chilean extension workers, researchers, farmers, students, teachers, representatives of indigenous communities and environmental leaders. The main objective of this course was to provide guidelines for integrating ecological restoration and agroecology in forest landscapes. Through a series of Latin American case studies, participants learned about the joint application of the principles of agroecology, restoration and sustainable livestock production at different scales. The course promoted a dialogue on agroecological restoration and helped participants to envision strategies to strengthen resilience to climate change. Project partners included Asociación Gremial Raíz Agroecológica de Pirque, Fundación Origen and Escuela Agroecológica de Pirque. Zoraida Calle (ELTI Colombia coordinator), Enrique Murgueitio (CIPAV’s executive director), Clara Nicholls and Miguel Altieri (both agroecologists at UC Berkeley), travelled to Chile to support David and other alumni who planned training activities in different regions of the country.