Biocultural heritage construction and community-based tourism in an important indigenous agricultural heritage system of the southern Andes

ABSTRACTTraditional agricultural systems reflect the close relationship between human communities and local ecosystems. The inheritance of knowledge, practices and beliefs, in which this relationship is materialised, or biocultural memory, is key for these systems' conservation and adaptation to social-environmental changes. Heritage construction processes may be used in a bid to conserve and increase awareness of this inheritance. Tourism is one alternative but is not immune to controversy. Through a qualitative methodology and participatory action research, this study examines biocultural heritage construction in an Important Agricultural Heritage System (IAHS) in Mapuche-Pewenche territory in the southern Andes. Based on the community-based tourism experience of two campesino cooperatives, our study points out how local actors understand and interpret their heritage as well as the opportunities and challenges of showcasing it through tourism. We found that the inheritance is understood as the way of life associated with Mapuche rural culture and, particularly, agricultural practices that support local food systems with a strong identity component. In these experiences of community-based tourism, we identify opportunities and challenges for reinforcing biocultural memory and inheritance in an IAHS. We discuss tourism development in IAHS sites, putting the communities that inhabit and maintain them in a central position.KEYWORDS: Biocultural memorycommunity-based tourismImportant agricultural heritage systemslocal actorsparticipatory methodologies AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank the Curarrehue Zomo Ngen and Quiñemawün Cooperatives. This research was financed by ANID/Fondecyt Regular 1200291, ANID/REDES 190033, ANID-Chile Laboratorio Natural Andes del Sur de Chile LN 007, the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research CIIR - ANID/FONDAP 15110006, the Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability CAPES - ANID PIA/BASAL FB0002 and the Cape Horn International Center for Global Change Studies and Biocultural Conservation CHIC - ANID PIA/BASAL PFB210018.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. People who cultivate the land to produce food, fishermen, pastoralists, agricultural workers, the landless, migrant workers, indigenous rural workers, of diverse identities, genders and age groups. https://viacampesina.org/en.2. One of the territory's traditional sociocultural practices consists in the movement of families and livestock between "winter" and "summer" spaces in line with climate variations between the two seasons (Marchant, Citation2019).3. PAR allowed us to work closely with the people involved, designing and implementing coherent actions to achieve a practical objective while, at the same time, contributing to the advance of scientific knowledge (Whyte, 1989; Ander-Egg, 2003; Balcazar, 2003).Additional informationNotes on contributorsSantiago Kaulen-LuksSantiago Kaulen-Luks. Geographer and graduate student at the Institute of Environmental and Evolutionary Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Austral de Chile. His recent research interests are focused on agroecology and the resilience of social-ecological systems.Carla MarchantCarla Marchant. Associate professor and researcher on human and rural geography at the Institute of Environmental and Evolutionary Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, and Laboratory of Territorial Studies (LabT), Universidad Austral de Chile.Fernanda OlivaresFernanda Olivares. MSc Rural Development, BSc Veterinary Medicine. Researchear on ethnoveterinary medicine, biocultural heritage and its link to food sovereignty in southern Chile. Institute of Environmental and Evolutionary Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, and Laboratory of Territorial Studies (LabT), Universidad Austral de Chile.José Tomás IbarraJosé Tomás Ibarra. Associate professor and researcher on human ecology and social-ecological systems at ECOS (Ecology-Complexity-Society) Co-Laboratory, Center for Local Development, Villarrica Campus & Faculty of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is also a researcher at the Cape Horn International Center for Global Change Studies and Biocultural Conservation (CHIC); Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR); and Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES).