Individual relationship and management of plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Some palms trees and lianas are, for Waorani people, landmarks of social and ecological history. The presence of these species and their recruitment in a determined forest patch enable storytelling of their forbearers’ way of live and impact on the forest. This presentation aims to show how collective memory, inscribed in the landscape, reconciled with tradition ecological knowledge allows Waorani people to interpret the growth and transformation of the forest. Ethnographical and ethnobotanical research was carried out among two family clusters settled along the Nushiño River. Their family history was registered in the places where they continue to visit. The management and use of these plants also serves to keep their past alive. A list of 39 species served to construct a management practice typology useful to understand different ways of appropriate plants as well as the relationship between this indigenous group and plants. This presentation discusses relationship and management of individual plants instead of a plant population.