Across Steppes, Rivers and Tides: Initiatives that Bring Together Local Knowledge and Community-Led Conservation

Seaweed gatherers in Aysén, highland muleteers in central Chile, Mapuche kimches and cooks who transmit ancestral food knowledge in La Araucanía, school communities engaging with the Patagonian steppe, environmental organizations protecting the Maipo River basin, and Aymara herders who keep high-Andean bofedales alive—these are some of the actors and territories represented in the initiatives selected for the FMA Fund 2025–2026.
This year’s projects interweave science, memory, local knowledge and participatory methodologies to strengthen conservation, climate resilience and the community-based relationships that emerge from the territories. Each proposal contributes deep understanding of socioecosystems and the development of collaborative practices of care and conservation.

The FMA Fund is an annual initiative designed to finance and support projects that promote actions for biodiversity conservation in Chile, through initiatives where science interacts with diverse forms of knowledge and disciplines. This version addressed key areas for conservation including territorial monitoring, biodiversity and underrepresented ecosystems; documentation of local knowledge, practices and trades; restoration of mountain ecosystems; biodiversity in arid zones and adaptation to water stress; as well as socioecological practices, governance, co-management and community self-organization.

List of Selected Projects 2025–2026

Dialogues of Knowledge around High-Andean Bofedales: Aymara Herding Lessons on a Priority Ecosystem — Arica and Parinacota Region

Representative: Magdalena García

This project continues the work developed by the collective CEQUIA—Collaborative Art and Anthropology—which, thanks to the support of the FMA Fund 2024–2025, completed the documentary Champeales, highlighting the water-management practices and technologies used by Aymara herders to care for high-Andean bofedales.
In this new stage, the project seeks to create open spaces for intercultural dialogue that deepen understanding of these wetlands as socially and historically shaped territories, whose maintenance depends on regenerative and restorative knowledge practiced by pastoral communities.

Meetings will be held in Arica, Putre, Codpa and Visviri, bringing together Indigenous Aymara and Quechua inhabitants from the communes of Camarones, Putre, General Lagos and Arica; environmental organizations such as Willapacha Colectivo and Modatima Arica; and local school communities. The resulting report or record of the dialogues will be shared with the participating organizations and public institutions involved in territorial management. Additionally, video capsules documenting the meetings will be produced and disseminated on digital platforms to strengthen the circulation of this knowledge beyond the participating communities.

Corridors of Life. Community Stewardship, Art and Territory for Ecosocial Conservation and Regeneration in the Maipo River Basin — Metropolitan Region

Representative: Diana Rojas

This initiative seeks to strengthen community and biocultural action in the communes of the Maipo River basin through the creation of ecological corridors that connect nuclei of urban and peri-urban biodiversity. Building from the Zanjón–Pajonal Community Biocorridor and other high-value environmental areas protected by local communities, the project promotes ecosocial development, urban–rural conservation and locally led climate adaptation.

Through participatory processes, socio-environmental organizations, communities and local governments are convened to promote dialogue, collaboration, exchange of experiences, and the co-construction of solutions that respond to ecosocial needs identified by the communities themselves. Its main outcome will be the co-creation of a Community Action Plan for Regeneration, which will systematize lessons learned, replicable strategies and concrete solutions implemented, incorporating artistic dimensions and local knowledge.
The initiative also integrates science, environmental education and artistic expressions—such as illustration, muralism, photography and creative writing—as methodologies to encourage observation, documentation and appreciation of local flora, fauna and funga.

Community Monitoring and Biocultural Conservation in Parque Nacional Glaciares de Santiago and the Río Olivares–Río Colorado Multiple Use Conservation Area — Metropolitan Region

Representative: Fernando Iglesias / Conservación Andina

This project aims to establish a community-based monitoring and citizen science program in the newly approved protected areas Parque Nacional Glaciares de Santiago and the Río Olivares–Río Colorado Multiple Use Conservation Area. Its objective is to generate a tool for ecological, hydrological and socioeconomic monitoring that integrates the knowledge of local muleteer communities with simple, replicable scientific methodologies.
This will allow tracking changes in biodiversity, hydrological systems and productive activities such as regenerative livestock grazing, to strengthen community-based management of mountain ecosystems.

Actions include community training for updating and systematizing baseline information. A model will also be developed for planning and evaluating productive and tourism practices in the high mountains, highlighting the community’s role as stewards of strategic ecosystems. Through a participatory and multidisciplinary approach, monitoring protocols will be established, community members and visitors trained, field campaigns carried out, and results shared in community and educational spaces.

Pathways of Knowledge. Mapuche Pewenche and Lafkenche Practices around Native Foods — La Araucanía Region

Representative: Anita Epulef

This project seeks to revitalize Mapuche knowledge related to biodiversity, traditional cooking and oral memory through the production of audiovisual capsules documenting stories by Anita Epulef and various kimche (knowledge keepers). These capsules will be accompanied by educational materials—illustrated postcards and learning guides—to facilitate their use in educational, community and family settings.
An educational journey through Lafkenche territory will also be carried out, enabling the educational community of the Kurarewe Mapuche Cooking School “Yafutuaiñ” to connect with ecosystems, harvesting practices and respectful ways of relating to Ñuke Mapu (Mother Earth).

Through these actions, the project seeks to highlight Mapuche cultural heritage as living knowledge that sustains mapuche kimün (Mapuche knowledge) related to native foods, strengthening intergenerational transmission of the language and environmental care practices.

Ecology of the Steppe: A Biodiverse Classroom Laboratory — Chile Chico, Aysén Region

Representative: Magdalena Andueza / Fundación Raíces de Calafate

This proposal aims to monitor the biodiversity present in the priority conservation site Estepa Jeinimeni–Lagunas Bahía Jara, and to explore pedagogical ways to incorporate this knowledge into the curriculum of the Chile Chico Primary School.
This territory is a fragile and underrepresented ecosystem within Chile’s National System of State-Protected Wild Areas (SNASPE), with high levels of endemism and species at risk of extinction. In response, the project integrates science, education and local knowledge, providing updated ecological information to be used as input for designing a biodiverse and transdisciplinary school curriculum grounded in Project-Based Learning and Outdoor Education.

The Journey of Luche — Aysén Region

Representative: Amparo Briceño

This initiative seeks to highlight the work of women who harvest luche (seaweed) along the coastline of the Aysén region. Through audiovisual, graphic and sound recordings, it will document the cycle of seaweed gathering in collaboration with shoreline harvesters from the Huichas Islands and Melinka. The project aims to bring visibility to these traditional practices, local knowledge and life histories that sustain this ancestral trade.

The action plan includes co-creative intertidal laboratories where harvesters and the project team will explore the intertidal zone through direct observation, optical instruments, audiovisual recording and soundscapes of the coastal environments they inhabit. These sessions will document the diverse morphologies of luche, extraction techniques, everyday gestures and personal narratives of those who practice this work.
The collectively created pieces will be exhibited in various urban spaces in the region, bringing this food and cultural heritage to new audiences through the voices of the harvesters themselves. In doing so, the project contributes to valuing the trade, supporting its sustainability and recognizing the ecological knowledge and science embedded in this practice, historically led by women.