Saving a Language, Saving a Forest: The Kamëntsá Approach to Ecology

In the heart of the Upper Putumayo, the Kamëntsá Nation carries an ecological wisdom that has protected the Amazon for thousands of years. Their worldview — encoded in language, ceremony, plant medicine, and relational ethics — offers a living model of how humans can coexist with the Earth without destroying it.

Yet today, the same forces that endanger the forest are also endangering the language that teaches how to protect it.

Across the Amazon, hundreds of medicinal plants, healing traditions, and ecological teachings are disappearing. And alongside them, the ancestral languages that embody this knowledge are fading. For the Kamëntsá, these two realities are inseparable:

When the language disappears, the forest disappears with it. And when the forest disappears, the language loses its roots.

This is the core of the Kamëntsá approach to ecology.

The Wisdom of Plant Medicine and the Language That Carries It

The Kamëntsá ancestral tradition is deeply connected to Yagé (Ayahuasca) and hundreds of medicinal plants used for healing, ceremony, and ecological balance. Each plant — from the smallest leaf to the tallest tree — holds a name in Kamëntsá Biyá that describes:

• its spirit

• its medicinal properties

• its ecological function

• its habitat

• its relationship to the body and territory

This is not poetry. It is an ecological science encoded in language.

When elders describe a plant, they reveal its lineage, its uses, the seasons it thrives in, the water it needs, and the stories that teach the community how to care for it. These teachings cannot be fully translated. Without the language, the medicine loses its context — and the forest loses its guardians.

A Crisis of Ecology and Culture

Today, many of the medicinal plants the Kamëntsá have worked with for countless generations are at risk of disappearing due to:

• deforestation

• contamination of water sources

• climate disruption

• loss of seed diversity

• external extraction of plant medicines

• accelerated biodiversity loss

At the same time, the Kamëntsá language has been in decline since the 1500s, when colonization attempted to erase Indigenous identities, ceremonies, and oral traditions. After centuries of cultural suppression, fewer than 6% of the Kamëntsá people speak the language fluently today.

This ecological and linguistic crisis is deeply intertwined.

Without the language, the knowledge of plants is lost. Without the plants, the language loses its meaning. Without both, the forest — and humanity — loses one of its most ancient guides.

An Indigenous-Led Response: Moch Huasginch Kamëntsá

To protect both the language and the forest, OIOC and the Kamëntsá community created Moch Huasginch Kamëntsá, an Indigenous-led revitalization school rooted in:

• oral tradition

• ancestral songs

• ecological teachings

• community ceremonies

• intergenerational learning

• cultural immersion

• plant medicine knowledge

Every weekend, 121 active students gather in Tamabioy — children, youth, adults, and elders — learning directly from teachers, wisdom keepers, and community leaders.

The school is more than a pedagogy.It is a movement of cultural resurgence and ecological protection.

Innovative Strategy: The Kamëntsá Language Bonus

Inspired by a successful Canadian model for Indigenous language revitalization, the Kamëntsá have implemented a powerful incentive: the Language Bonus Strategy.

Here’s how it works:

🌱 1. Students commit to a full cycle of language learning

They attend classes, workshops, rituals, and ecological sessions.

🌱 2. Elders and community leaders evaluate their knowledge

Instead of written exams, students pass cultural tests, grounded in:

• correct pronunciation

• understanding of plant names

• ecological concepts

• cultural context

• ceremonial vocabulary

• proper use of ancestral expressions

🌱 3. Upon passing, each student receives a bonus

A small financial recognition that honors their effort and encourages sustained learning.

🌱 4. Students sign a commitment agreement

Each learner voluntarily signs a community pact to:

• continue studying Kamëntsá Biyá

• teach younger learners

• use the language in family and community

• participate in cultural revitalization events

• protect the ecological teachings encoded in the language

This creates a living chain of transmission — precisely what has been missing since colonization disrupted the intergenerational flow.

The results have been extraordinary. Attendance has increased. Pronunciation is improving. More children are speaking with elders. Families are practicing words at home. The territory is hearing its language again.

How You Can Support This Work

We invite you to support this Indigenous-led initiative to protect the Kamëntsá language and the ecological wisdom it carries.

👉 Donate to the Language School https://donorbox.org/kamenstalanguageprogram

Your contribution strengthens:

🌿 Indigenous teachers

🌿 cultural curriculum

🌿 ecological knowledge

🌿 intergenerational transmission

🌿 forest protection

🌿 ancestral continuity

Saving a language is saving a forest.

Saving a forest is saving the future.