SYMP 20-4 - Project Ărramăt: Strengthening Health And Wellbeing Through Indigenous-Led Conservation and Sustainable Relationships With Biodiversity

Most of the Earth’s biodiversity is located in the territories of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples in North America and globally are highly successful at “taking care” of the land and resources in ways that are good for biodiversity and that support the health and well-being of their communities. Ărramăt is a concept in Tamasheq, the Indigenous language spoken by the Tuareg people whose ancestral land encompasses the current territories of Algeria, Burkina-Faso, Libya, Mali, and Niger, that describes a state of well-being shared by the environment, animals, and humans​. It is written in Tifinagh, the Tuareg alphabet, as ⴰⵔⵔⴰⵎⴰⵜ. These words teach us that if the lands (water, fish, animals, plants) are not healthy, then the people are not healthy. Project Ărramăt involves a team of Indigenous organizations, governments, university researchers, and other resource people working together on research and action in support of the health and well-being of the environment and people. Project Ărramăt is working to strengthen Indigenous voices and capacities to document their knowledge about the importance of the whole environment, including biodiversity, to the health and well-being of their communities. This presentation will describe the scope of the research and Indigenous knowledge being supported by Project Ărramăt and some lessons it offers to biodiversity science and conservation biology at the interface of doing and knowing and realizing place-based biodiversity protection and self-determination in research.