Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana

Last updated
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana
Retrato de Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana.jpg
Born1973
Alma mater Universidad Mayor de San Andrés
Occupation Biologist
AwardsOrganización para las Mujeres en la Ciencia para el Mundo en Desarrollo
Scientific career
Fields Ethnobotany

Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana (La Paz, 13 May 1973) is a Bolivian ethnobotanist. She investigates the use and protection of traditional knowledge of plants in indigenous communities, particularly in the Bolivian Andes. She is currently an Associated Researcher at the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andres in Bolivia. Her goal is giving them the knowledge to participate in decision-making on the conservation of their intangible cultural heritage.

Contents

Biography

Paniagua-Zambrana was born in La Paz, Bolivia on 13. May, 1973. Her love for nature stems from her childhood, when she played in the mountains while her father worked as a geologist in the Bolivian tin mines. [1] [2] Later, she decided to make a life career out of this passion, studying biology and later specializing in ethnobotany, a science that studies the use of plants by humans. In 1998, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, studying under noted ecologist Robin B. Foster. [3] In 2005 she obtained her Master of Science from the Aarhus University. She married ethnobotanist and sometime co-author Dr. Rainer Bussmann. [3] Her botanical research has focused on flora and vegetation in indigenous communities, particularly the native palms of the Andes and Amazonia.

In 2016, under guidance of Mónica Moraes Ramírez, she obtained her PhD in biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid with her thesis "Diversity, usage patterns and socioeconomic value of palms species used in tropical forest" ("Diversidad, patrones de uso y valoración socio-económica de las de las palmeras en los bosques neotropicales"). [1] [4]

She currently works as an associate researcher at the Bolivian National Herbarium in the Ecology Institute of the University of San Andrés (Herbario Nacional de Bolivia - Instituto de Ecología de la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés).

In an interview in April 2020, Paniagua-Zambrana expressed concerns about entering the indigenous territories where she normally conducts her research for fears of bringing COVID-19 to local communities, and temporarily suspended her fieldwork. [5]

Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana during one of her expeditions. Narel Y. Paniagua Zambrana.jpg
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana during one of her expeditions.

Scientific career and contributions

According to a regional study by Elsevier and Google Scholar, Paniagua-Zambrana is among the most-published researchers in Bolivia. She has written more than 200 scientific papers, 30 books and more than 400 book chapters. [6] [7] Her work involves indigenous communities in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Madagascar. [8] She is a professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia and a visiting professor of biology at the National University of San Marcos (Universidad De San Marcos) in Lima, Perú. She is also a member of the Society for Economic Botany (SEB), the Asociación Latinoamericana de Botánica (ALB), the Grupo Latinoamericano de Etnobotánica - Grupo de Bolivia (GELA), the Organización Boliviana para Mujeres en la Ciencia and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World.

Mural dedicated to Paniagua-Zambrana in La Paz. Mural Narel Paniagua.jpg
Mural dedicated to Paniagua-Zambrana in La Paz.

Recognition

In 2001 Paniagua-Zambrana received the Camara Junior award for Environmental Leadership of the Chamber for Commercein Bolivia [2]

The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World-Elsevier Foundation awarded her the Latin America & the Caribbean region early-career award. [9] This award annually recognizes five women from developing countries in the field of Biology, and acknowledges their commitment in guiding young scientists and improving life in their communities and regions. [9] Paniagua-Zambrana is the first Bolivian women scientist recognized with this award. [2] [9]

Also in 2019, to mark International Women's Day, the World Food Programme commissioned a mural by Norka Paz in honor of her work, in the Sopocachi neighborhood of La Paz. [10]

Books and publications

The standard author abbreviation Paniagua is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cochabamba</span> City and municipality in Bolivia

Cochabamba is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and the fourth largest city in Bolivia, with a population of 630,587 according to the 2012 Bolivian census. Its name is from a compound of the Quechua words qucha "lake" and pampa, "open plain." Residents of the city and the surrounding areas are commonly referred to as cochalas or, more formally, cochabambinos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui</span> Bolivian historian

Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui is a Bolivian feminist, sociologist, historian, and subaltern theorist. She is Emeritus Professor at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia, where she taught Sociology for over thirty years. She draws upon anarchist theory as well as Quechua and Aymara cosmologies. She is a former director and longtime member of the Taller de Historia Oral Andina. The Taller de Historia Oral Andina has conducted an ongoing critique of Western epistemologies through writings and activism for nearly two decades. She is also an activist who works directly with indigenous movements in Bolivia, such as the Katarista movement and the coca growers movement.

Patacamaya or Patak Amaya (Aymara) is a city in Bolivia, situated in the La Paz Department. It is the seat of the Patacamaya Municipality, the fifth municipal section of the Aroma Province. Patacamaya lies in the Altiplano, approximately 100 km southeast of La Paz. It contains the intersection between 'Carretera 1' which goes from La Paz to Oruro, as well as Cochabamba, and the 'Carretera Arica-La Paz'. The 'Tambo Quemado' highway is one of the most important international roads that travels through Bolivia.

Botrychium onondagense is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae that is closely related to the more common Botrychium lunaria. It is known from many locations in the temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere including Europe, Russia, Canada, and the United States. It was first described in 1903, but has long been regarded as a synonym for Botrychium lunaria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolanda Bedregal</span> Bolivian poet and novelist

Yolanda Bedregal de Cónitzer was a Bolivian poet and novelist, known as Yolanda of Bolivia. She is known for her explorations of human emotions, and especially in her later years, isolation and loneliness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elsa Cladera de Bravo</span> Bolivian trade union leader and educator (1922–2005)

Elsa Cladera de Bravo. (1922–2005) was a Bolivian trade union leader and educator, leader of the teachers organisation in Bolivia, delegate at the "Asamblea del Pueblo" in 1971, engaged in the work for women's emancipation

Prunus rigida, is a species of shrub or tree in the family Rosaceae. It is native to Peru and Bolivia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julieta Montaño</span>

Rosa Julieta Montaño Salvatierra is a Bolivian attorney, human rights defender, woman's rights activist, feminist writer and a 2015 winner of the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.

Kathrin Barboza Márquez is a Bolivian biologist who is an expert in bat research. In 2006, she and a research partner discovered a species thought to be extinct and in 2010, she was awarded the National Geographic's "Young Explorer Grant". She became the first Bolivian scientist to win a L'Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science in 2012 and in 2013 was named by the BBC as one of the top ten Latin American women of science.

Sonia Alconini Mujica is a Bolivian anthropologist and archaeologist specializing in the socioeconomic and political development of early states and empires in the Andes. She has studied the dynamics of ancient imperial frontiers, and the ways in which Guarani tropical tribes expanded over these spaces. She has also conducted work in the eastern Bolivian valleys and Lake Titicaca region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idelisa Bonnelly</span> Dominican marine biologist (1931–2022)

Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi was a Dominican marine biologist who is considered the "mother of marine conservation in the Caribbean". She was the founder of the study of biology in the Dominican Republic, as well as the founder of the Institute of Marine Biology and the Dominican Foundation for Marine Research. She was instrumental in the creation of the first Humpback Whale Sanctuary of the North Atlantic and has won numerous awards, including induction into the UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour, UNESCO's Marie Curie Medal and the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella. The BBC has called her one of the most important women scientists in Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadezhda Bravo Cladera</span> Bolivian linguist, researcher and writer

Elsa Nadezhda Bravo Cladera is a Bolivian linguist, researcher and writer. She is a Doctor of Philosophy in Romance Languages from the University of Uppsala. She is "Académica de número" of the Academia Boliviana de la Lengua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Huanacuni</span> Bolivian politician, lawyer and researcher

Fernando Huanacuni Mamani is a Bolivian politician, lawyer and researcher. He served as the Foreign Minister of Bolivia from 2017 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ina Vandebroek</span> Ethnobotanist

Ina Vandebroek is an ethnobotanist working in the areas of floristics, ethnobotany and community health. Since 2005, she has worked at the New York Botanical Garden in the Institute of Economic Botany. She has worked on ethnobotanical projects in North America, the Caribbean, and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marfa Inofuentes</span> Afro-Bolivian activist

Marfa Inofuentes Pérez (1969–2015) was an Afro-Bolivian activist involved in the Constitutional reform movement to recognize black Bolivians as an ethnic minority in the country. After achieving the goal for Afro-Bolivians to be protected under the law, she served as the head the Ministry of Gender and was appointed deputy mayor of the Peripheral Macrodistrict of the Municipality of La Paz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainer W. Bussmann</span> German botanist and vegetation ecologist (born 1967)

Rainer W. Bussmann is a German botanist and vegetation ecologist, specializing in ethnobotany and ethnobiology, wild food plants, wild crop relatives, climate change, gastronomic botany and preservation of traditional knowledge in the Andes, the Caucasus and the Himalayas. He has worked at the University of Bayreuth, University of Hawaii, University of Texas, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Ilia State University and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe; he has founded several international non-governmental organizations, including Nature and Culture International, Saving Knowledge, and Ethnomont.

<i>Baccharis genistelloides</i> Species of plant

Baccharis genistelloides is a species of flowering plant from the family Asteraceae. It is one of the most studied species in its genus Baccharis regarding its phytochemistry and pharmacological effects. The plant species is widely used in folk medicine.

Dora Justiniano de la Rocha (1925-2016), full name Dora Justiniano Callau de la Rocha, was a linguist, educator, and poet from the Beni department of Bolivia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romina Pérez</span> Bolivian diplomat and politician (born 1958)

Romina Guadalupe Pérez Ramos is a Bolivian academic, diplomat, politician, and sociologist who served as ambassador of Bolivia to Iran from 2019 to 2020 and since 2021. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she previously served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Cochabamba from 2015 to 2019. Pérez graduated as a sociologist from the Higher University of San Simón before completing postgraduate studies in the European Union. She comes from a generation of leftist academics who entered political activity as activists against the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s, as well as the neoliberal democratic governments that succeeded them. Her work in the field of women's and ethnic rights led her to join multiple NGOs, including the Center for Legal Studies and Social Research, through which many academics and intellectuals became politically linked with the Movement for Socialism. In 2014, she won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies on the party's electoral list but did not complete her term, being appointed ambassador to Iran in mid-2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lidia Patty</span> Bolivian politician (born 1969)

Lidia Patty Mullisaca is a Bolivian politician and trade unionist. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Patty represented La Paz in the Chamber of Deputies, first as a substitute alongside Manuel Canelas from 2015 to 2018 and later as a voting member until 2020. She later served as consul of Bolivia to Puno, Peru, in June 2023 and has been vice consul of Bolivia in La Plata, Argentina, since September 2023.

References