Details
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 alumna Adriana Giraldo is a proud member of the smallholder community of Bellavista, one of ELTI’s training landscapes, located in the western Colombian Andes at El Dovio, Valle del Cauca. This community has collaborated with CIPAV in participatory research during the last three decades. Adriana belongs to the first generation of Bellavista with a college education. She worked hard to pay for her undergraduate studies and is currently finishing her MSc on plant genetic resources. With support from ELTI, Adriana was able to extend her M.Sc. research on the phenology and growth of Mimosa trianae (an endemic and endangered tree) and undertake participatory research on the local uses and knowledge of this species. With mentorship from the ELTI Colombia Coordinator Zoraida Calle, Adriana made an impressive presentation at the 2018 Latin American Agroecology Conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and was elected as youth representative of the Latin American Society for Agroecology board.
Adriana developed this project between December 2017 and March 2018 to study the phenology and natural regeneration of the Mimosa trianae, a tree species endemic to Colombia and threatened by over-exploitation and deforestation. Participatory research activities involved adults, youth and children from Choapal and Fátima, two peasant communities of the municipality of Medina, Cundinamarca. Local people attended field trips and workshops, in which they shared their experience and knowledge about this species. As a result of this project (which involved 22 adults and 14 children from 16 families), local people acknowledged the singularity and special value of Mimosa trianae, as well as their responsibility in managing the species sustainably and in implementing restoration and conservation strategies using this tree. Adriana plans to continue her participatory research with these and other local communities of the eastern Andean foothills, to design agroforestry and silvopastoral systems and to develop restoration protocols based on the ecology of this multipurpose tree.