University of North Texas

The Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program was recently awarded second place in the 2010 Raanan Weitz Competition, an annual worldwide call for proposals on innovative strategies to achieve sustainable development.

The winning proposal was entitled The Omora Ethnobotanical Park: Conceptual and Methodological Advances for Linking Ecological Sustainability and Social Well Being in Southern South America.

The project is led by Ricardo Rozzi, director of the program, and J. Baird Callicott, professor of philosophy and religion studies, with the support of Francisca Massardo of the Universidad de Magallanes and undergraduate student Kelli Moses.

The award will be granted at the opening ceremony of the Rehovot Conference 2010 at the Wietz Center for Development Studies in Israel. The center is a world leader in sustainable development and efforts to achieve positive social change.

Christopher Anderson, coordinator of the Sub-Antarctic Ecosystems and Biocultural Conservation research cluster, said, "This project is an example of academic research engaging both university and local communities. It facilitates dialogue on conservation with collaborators throughout the Americas, and it provides a meaningful context for local individuals and institutions to learn the value of place through the lens of multiple academic disciplines – from the humanities to the sciences – and also the value of traditional ecological knowledge from multiple cultural perspectives." 

The philosophers, artists and scientists associated with the Omora Park are in the process of implementing a novel ecotourism activity called Tourism with a Hand Lens, photo, with the support of a $400,000 grant from the Chilean Ministry of Economy. 

In 2008, the Omara Park project and its researchers won the Science and Practice of Ecology and Society Award, given by the Foundation of Scientific Synthesis, and Rozzi won the Sustainable Living Prize from the Peace House Foundation in Santiago.