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Terraces and ancestral knowledge in an Andean agroecosystem: a call for inclusiveness in planetary health action

Abstract:

Ancestral knowledge, centered in Mother Nature, is in the indigenous discourse and international forums. Caliata, a resilient community in Ecuador’s central highlands faces internal structural problems and external pressures. Nevertheless, it has retained an ancestral knowledge deeply integrated into a pre-Columbian system of cultivation terraces, agrodiversity, native crops, and natural cycles’ management, which combine to shape a viable agroecosystem. We describe Caliata’s agroecological landscape and community views to explore the sustainability cues that have assured food sovereignty, seemingly from ancient times. Our research provides insights that can be scaled-up from local to programs and policy aligned to planetary health.