EWA - The Ethno-ornithology World Archive

鸟类鼓舞着人们，激励着他们的文化和信仰。与其他任何野生动物相比，这些声音响亮、色彩鲜艳、富有魅力的生物更能激发人类的想象力。与鸟类有关的神话、故事和宗教习俗在许多文化中根深蒂固，从向喜鹊致敬到在青藏高原的宗教葬礼中依靠秃鹰。与此同时，鸟类为社区及其共享的环境提供必要的服务。鸟类可以作为传粉者或种子传播者，但也可以捕食农田害虫，使人类受益。不同种类的鸟类的存在和丰富程度也可以作为它们栖息的自然环境状态的指示器。由于他们对人类的兴趣，志愿观鸟者比他们的志愿者多得多，以记录任何其他生物的命运。因此，通过涉及数千名志愿者的“公民科学”方法，我们能够监测全国范围内鸟类分布和数量的变化，这对其他动植物来说是不可想象的。因此，鸟类对保护和生物多样性研究非常重要。鸟类的环境和文化意义可以结合在一起，为社区及其文化服务，帮助保护研究，并保护文化和生物多样性。许多人拥有关于鸟类的知识，这些知识不是植根于科学，而是植根于对周围世界的文化理解。这些知识在很大程度上没有记录在案，但其有效性不亚于科学知识。能够分享这些知识可以给社区带来灵感，使他们意识到他们的知识和鸟类是重要的。对于那些本来可能在世界上没有发言权的人来说，让他们的当地或传统知识的价值得到全球社会的认可和重视，可能是一种赋权。但这样的机会很少，传统和地方生态知识(TEK和LEK)也不存在于互联网上。个别社区已经与当地保护组织接触，并参与社区保护项目。分享本地知识和资讯的方法，对成功参与社区活动，以及建立本地对自然计划的自豪感，至为重要。互联网被公认为是接触全球观众和在全球范围内分享资讯的最有力工具。它的潜力在不断增长。EWA项目直接与我们的项目合作伙伴国际鸟盟合作，该项目是世界上最大的保护合作组织，在126个国家有合作伙伴，特别是其当地赋权计划，旨在通过创建一个开放的鸟类文化知识数据库来连接当地社区和研究人员团体，个人、社区和研究人员可以免费访问。我们将与社区以及当地组织合作，帮助保护当地故事、神话或鸟类名称等丰富的文化多样性。通过鼓励个人、社区领导人或当地组织提交故事、歌曲录音或艺术品或文化文物的照片等数据，我们将建立一个档案，有助于展示许多社区固有的丰富文化和自然遗产。通过将文化和生物信息联系起来，特别是通过基于网络的《活着的鸟类手册》(Lynx Edicions Project Partner)，我们将实现自然资源保护者和当地人民之间的更大融合，包括更好地了解包括土著社区在内的所有利益攸关方的文化，并促进庆祝与自然关系密切的人的文化多样性。就项目伙伴关系而言，该项目是及时的，但也是紧迫的，因为TEK和LEK是口头传播的，往往由老年人持有，而且每天都在减少。

Birds inspire people, their cultures and faiths. More than any other wild animals, these vocal, colourful and charismatic creatures fuel human imagination. Myths, stories and religious practices connected to birds are engrained in many cultures, from saluting magpies to relying on vultures in religious burial practices of the Tibetan plateau. At the same time, birds provide essential services to communities and the environment they share with them. Birds may act as pollinators or seed dispersers, but also eat farmland pests, benefiting humans.The presence and abundance of different kinds of birds can also act as an indicator for the state of the natural environment that they inhabit. Because of their interest to people, there are many more volunteer birdwatchers than their are volunteers to document the fortunes of any other creatures. Through 'Citizen Science' approaches involving thousands of volunteers, we are therefore able to monitor changes in bird distributions and numbers on a national scale in ways that would be inconceivable for other animals or plants. Birds are therefore of great importance to conservation and biodiversity research. The environmental and cultural significance of birds can be integrated together to serve communities and their cultures, aid conservation research, and preserve both cultural and biological diversity.Many people possess knowledge of birds that is not rooted in scientific, but in cultural understanding of the world around them. This knowledge is largely undocumented, but is no less valid than scientific knowledge. Being able to share that knowledge can bring inspiration to communities in the realisations that their knowledge, and birds, are important. It can be empowering for people who otherwise might not have a voice in the world, to have the value of their local or traditional knowledge recognised and valued by a global community. But opportunities for such recognition are few, and for Traditional and Local Ecological Knowledge (TEK and LEK), do not exist on the Internet. Individual communities already engage with local conservation organisations and get involved in community conservation projects. A means of sharing the local lore and information can be crucial for successful community involvement, and to build local pride in nature projects.The Internet is recognised as the most powerful means to access a global audience and share information on a global scale. Its potential is constantly growing. Working directly with our Project Partner, Birdlife International, the largest conservation collaborative in the world with partners in 126 countries, and especially its Local Empowerment Programme, the EWA project aims to connect local communities and groups of researchers by creating an open database of cultural knowledge about birds, free to access by individuals, communities and researchers. We will work with communities, as well as local organisations to help preserve the rich cultural diversity present in local stories, myths, or names of birds etc. By encouraging individuals, community leaders or local organisations to submit data such as stories, recordings of songs, or photographs of works of art or cultural artefacts, we will build an archive that will help to bring out the rich cultural and natural heritage inherent in many communities.By linking cultural and biological information, especially through the web-based Handbook of Birds Alive (Lynx Edicions Project Partner) we will achieve a greater integration between conservationists and local people on-the-ground, including greater understanding of the cultures of all stakeholders, including indigenous communities, and to promote the celebration of the cultural diversity of people living in a close relationship with nature. The project is timely in relation to the project partnership, but it is also urgent because TEK and LEK, which is transmitted orally, tends to be held by ageing people and declines daily.