Introduction - Introducción

Project Summary

CA Indígena is a geographic research project of the University of Kansas (KU) and the American Geographical Society (AGS), funded by a prestigious Minerva Initiative Grant for University-led Research of the U.S. Department of Defense. The project is distinguished as an AGS Bowman Expedition, and follows the ethical guidelines governing that program, as well as those of KU.

Struggles over land tenure and territorial sovereignty are common in municipalities where indigenous peoples live in Central America. Throughout the region, indigenous communities work to gain or retain collective ownership of their lands and to protect their natural and cultural heritage. Given that most of their populations have long suffered discrimination, land dispossession, and poverty, how is it that some of them are thriving and protecting their lands, natural resources, and cultural identities?

We hypothesize that certain factors, like conservation, tourism, and local autonomy can bring cultural stability and associated benefits to these municipalities. Conversely, other factors can bring instability and conflicts, such as an advancing colonization front, certain commercial activities, or particular land ownership rights. To analyze these issues, we use the methods and techniques of human geography.

The CA Indigena project employs publicly-available geographic information, together with geographic information systems (GIS), and participatory research mapping (PRM) to map and understand the stability of indigenous municipios and other indigenous territorial jurisdictions in Central America. We research at two different scales: a) at the regional scale, using municipio data on land and stability variables (mostly national census results); and b) at the local scale, researching specific territorial jurisdictions of indigenous populations.

Results will include digital maps and statistical analyses of indigenous municipalities at the Central American regional level, and of specific indigenous territorial jurisdictions (concejos territoriales, comarcas, autonomous regions, municipios, biosphere reserves) at the local level. Whenever possible, our results are designed with and for the indigenous populations and their federations where we work.

The CA Indigena project established a collaboration with the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán (UPNFM), setting up an office called the Mesa Geografica Indigena, where presently four undergraduate students (3 of indigenous heritage) receive training from and work directly in the field and the office. They are part of our small research team of two KU professors, two UPNFM professors, one KU/AGS post doc, and two KU PhD students. Through our PRM methodology, we also train and certify community-elected representatives as “local geographers” who combine basic geographic skills with their local knowledge to help their communities use the digital map and statistical results.

An accessible version of the documents below will be made available upon request. Please contact CAIndigena@gmail.com to request the archival document be made available in an accessible format.

What is participatory research mapping? / ¿Qué es la investigación cartográfica participativa?

Slide Show about the mapping process in Katainasta (PDF)

2014 Poster Summarizing the Project (PDF) / Resúmen del Proyecto en Formato Póster (PDF)

Slide Show About the Project, Part 1 (PDF) / Pase de Diaposativas Sobre el Proyecto, 1a Parte (PDF)

Slide Show About the Project, Part 2 (PDF) / Pase de Diaposativas Sobre el Proyecto, 2a Parte (PDF)

2015 Poster Summarizing the Project and its Accomplishments (PDF)

The team is also developing strategies which incorporate remotely-sensed imagery with participatory researching mapping data, to create a web map portal that is frequently updated, illustrates historical resource management, and whose content and appearence is fundamentally controlled by the indigenous stakeholders.

Initial results include a better understanding of the emergence of new territorial jurisdictions in Honduras, and of the complicated nature of creating local management and governance structures in the area. Challenges include variations in official spatial data, both among and within countries. (ver abajo en español)

El proyecto CA Indígena (Centroamérica Indígena) se dedica a apoyar a los grupos indígenas en la gobernanza de sus tierras e investiga por qué algunos grupos indígenas logran la estabilidad cultural, política, territorial y ambiental mientras que otros no.

Además el equipo está desarrollando estratégias que incorporan imágenes de percepción remota con datos de investigación cartográfica participativa, para elaborar un portal de mapas web con actualización frecuente, que ilustra el manejo histórico de recursos, con contenido y aspecto controlado por los residentes indígenas.

Los resultados preliminares incluyen un mejor conocimiento sobre el surgimiento de nuevas jurisdicciones territoriales indígenas en Honduras y de las complejidades de las estructuras de manejo y gobernanza en la región. Los retos incluyen las inconsistencias en los datos espaciales oficiales, tanto entre los países como dentro de los mismos.