This document summarizes a study on the cultural connections of indigenous communities in Leticia, Colombia to the nearby tropical forest through bushmeat networks. It finds that while indigenous diets have changed with globalization and urbanization, bushmeat still plays an important role in food security, income, and culture for urban and periurban indigenous households. Bushmeat networks connect indigenous people to the forest and territories through hunting, sharing, and exchange at the household, maloca, market, restaurants, and airport. The networks maintain indigenous peoples' local knowledge and traditions while providing nutrition and economic benefits.

1. The Cultural Connections of Urban and Periurban
Indigenous Communities to Tropical Forest
through Bushmeat Networks in Leticia
(Colombia)
Blanca Yagüe, Nathalie van Vliet, Daniel Cruz, Maytik Avirama Pavón

2. Food from the forest...
… and from the market
Amazonian inhabitants had originally obtain their food from th
forest and the rivers
Nowadays, the region is under intense transformation:
huge extractive projects, migration and urbanization, access
to new markets, globalization...
Major impact in indigenous populations

3. Global value chains: industrialized products from all
around the world
Food transition
How are food habits changing in the
Amazon?

4. Our research questions are:
Indigenous families still consume
forest products in urban contexts?
What role do forest products have in
urban and periurban indigenous
households?
How do forest products link these
people to the forest?

5. Bushmeat as a model
• Food security
- Nutrition: source of protein
- “Safety Net”
• Economic resource: contributes to household income
• Social and cultural implications
- Traditional foods and rituals
- Local knowledge of territory and resources
- Social relationships
Important multifuntional role in indigenous
communities:

6. Leticia: a city in the Amazon tri-frontier
- 38000 inhabitants
- migration: colonos and
urban indigenous
- connected by river and daily flights

7. Methods
Ethnography
Participant observation
Interviews
Network building (GenoPro)

8. Household 1
• 14 members
(5 females, 9 males)
• Ocaina-uitoto
• Periurban indigenous
community (Leticia)
• Chagra and garden
• Pluriactivity
• Hunter

9. Household 2
• 5 members
(1 female, 4 males)
• Muninane, miraña
• Urban area Leticia
(maloca CAPUIL)• Politically active
• Urban chagra
• Traditional medicine
• Pluriactivity

10. Household 3
• 7 members
(5 female, 2 males)
• Cocama – non indigenous
• Urban area (Leticia)
 Relationship with
community of origin
 Chagra

11. Household
Main place where bushmeat
is shared, exchanged and
consumed • Bushmeat brought directly
from the forest
• Preparation proccess
• Cooking
• Sharing with guests
→ Hunting tales
Exchange scenarios

12. Forest
• Hunting activity (males)
• Alone or in group
• Consumption
→ share with companions
(family, friends,
tourists
and scientists)
Deep knowledge of the
territory and its resources

13. Maloca
Socialization:
Bring together kins and people
from different ethnic groups
Share of food → bushmeat
Dance rituals or
festivals

14. Market
• Sales out of the market
• - by order
- door by door
• Monetary transition
• Confidence based
• Social relationships

15. Restaurants and food sands
• Monetary transition
• Social relationships
• Urban / rural
• Hidden sales
• Most common: paca

16. Other households
Less common among these
families -
• they offer bushmeat in their
households
Urban families eat
bushmeat in urban and rural
indigenous households

17. Airport
Network expands in territory and
number of actors:
- connection with distant territories
- intermediaries
Need to contend with
authorities and
airlines

18. Type of exchange
Immediate exchange
Long-term exchange
Meal sharing
Mediated by money (buy/sale)
Reciprocity

19. Bushmeat networks

20. Bushmeat participates in networks that
connect indigenous people with:
The forest
The rural territories
Their inhabitants
What connections does the urban indigenous have with
the tropical forest?

21. • It means the maintenance
of knowledge about the
territory, forest and its
resources
What role does bushmeat have in urban and periurban
indigenous households?
• Socialization -
“making kins”
• Reproduction of rituals –
traditional dance festivals

22. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
- Local people: Food sovereignty
- To incorporate the social and cultural dimensions of
bushmeat and other forest products that play a similar role

23. Acknowledgements
All the photos were taken by Blanca Yagüe
Special thanks to all the members of the five families that
are the center of this study, and also to all the persons
involved in their networks, for sharing their daily life and
opening their houses and kitchens to us