Kichwa Cosmovision, agroforestry systems and sustainable alternatives for the Amazon. The experience of the Grupo chakra in Archidona, Ecuador

Abstract

This article deals with an agroecological and agro-tourism experience in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in Archidona, Napo province. The aim of this study is to show two central aspects. The first is the contributions and benefits generated by the management model of the Grupo Chakra, a social and territorial process of the region on the implementation of an agroforestry system. Its importance lies in the fact that it allows generating better income, in a clean and environmentally responsible way, and taking the wisdom of the Amazonian Kichwa people, also known as Quechua.

The second general aspect is the theoretical-methodological, in terms of the approach from the critical geography of social and territorial processes, and their relationship with the territories under investigation. It is based on three pillars: Kichwa cosmovision, Ecuador's National Constitution of 'Good Living' and the disciplinary, socio-territorial perspective. This contribution unites and contemplates both the social and the natural. But it also integrates nature, the environment, as another actor in the construction of territory. It means that it also influences, generates an impact on society as well as receives it, in a permanent, dialectic and metabolic relationship. This has to do with the natural conditions that make productive activities and their ways more or less favorable and to know how to decide them in order to achieve an adaptation to the context. A parallel is established with a critical look between the community and the work of a territorial management model, as opposed to conventional capitalist production.