“I live in a place where food is everywhere, while in the cities people are struggling for food. All I need to do is just walk or climb a tree to get a fruit. People would say it’s not just for them but these benefits are the result of thousands of years managing and protecting the nature and it’s not just good luck. The difference is that we as indigenous people, instead of building a five star hotel, we rather protect 100 beautiful trees. Also, instead of destroying the habitats of animals we admire and respect them. Yes, we also hunt but the vision we have is to take only the necessary just like what a jaguar does.”
–Edgar Osvaldo Monte Borges,
An indigenous fellow from the Mayan community in Mexico
Edgar Osvaldo Monte Borges
Edgar Osvaldo Monte Borges is a former fellow of TIP’s Indigenous Youth Fellowship Programme from Quantana Roo, Mayan community, Mexico. He is one of the four Fellows of the 2019 batch representing his indigenous community in working towards defending the indigenous food systems and uplifting well-being. The fellows were initially hosted by NESFAS (a local organisation in Meghalaya, India) and then proceeded to Rome, Italy for the 2nd half of the programme where they were hosted by Bioversity International.