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	News Highlights → Research: Omora Park becomes part of the University of Chile’s Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity long-term research program. See news or www.ieb-chile.cl Education: In November, the Omora Park will receive a delegation of students and authorities from the Veneto Region, Italy. The imitative is coordinated by Imprenditori Veneti en Cile and will conclude the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Omora Park and the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. For more information, click here. During the months of June, July and August, Omora will offer training courses for local tourism operators to help implement ecotourism in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. For more information click here. The University of North Texas has announced a new nature writing course to be held at Omora in December 2006 – January 2007: www.phil.unt.edu. Conservation: Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO! o Read the chronology of the initiative o Read responses from around the world The Omora Foundation The Omora Foundation is a Chilean non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to biocultural conservation in the extreme southern tip of South America. The Foundation receives its name from the Yahgan word for “hummingbird.” However, in the Yahgan cosmology Omora was more than a bird; he was also a revered hero. In ancestral times, when humans and other animals lived in the same society, little Omora would arrive to settle ecological and personal disputes and in that way he maintained the harmony of society and nature. The holistic meaning of Omora bridges the divide between humans and other living beings, between society and the natural environment. The Omora Foundation attempts to embody this last, broader definition in its mission to “integrate biocultural conservation with social well being at the ends of the Earth.” For more information check out Challenges and Solutions. The Omora Ethnobotanical Park The Omora Ethnobotanical Park is a collaborative initiative between the Omora NGO and the Universidad de Magallanes and is a party to BGCI’s International Agenda for Botanical Gardens in Conservation. The Park is located 3 km west of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Isla Navarino.  Within the park interpretative trails explore most of the major habitat types of the region:  coastal coigue forests, lenga parks, ñirre forests, Sphagnum bogs, beaver wetlands and alpine heath.  In addition, the Robalo River runs through the park and provides potable water to the town of Puerto Williams.  The Omora Park aspires to be: 1) an outdoor classroom open to the students and teachers of schools and universities, as well as for visitors interested in nature, its landscapes and cultures. 2) a natural laboratory to study the ecology of the southernmost forests on the plant, including processes and effects of global climate change on the Cape Horn Region. 3) a public space to try forms of living together based on solidarity and respect between human beings and other biological species. Ethnobotany The Omora Park is also member of the Latin American Network of Ethnobotanical Sister Gardens (read the latest Network Newsletter). Ethnobotany is the study and practice of the relationship between humans, plants and the ecosystem inhabited by them. In the spirit of ethnobotany, Omora promotes conservation of the traditional ecological knowledge held by diverse ethnic groups, particularly the Yahgans. As part of the park’s intercultural education program, the signs identifying the various plants and animals include the names in Yahgan, scientific Latin, English and Spanish for each species. For example, the bush upush, Ribes magellanicum or zarzaparrilla, possesses names which express diverse cultural points of view about this species. In Yahgan, Puerto Williams was called Upushwaia, because it was the bay (waia) where upush was abundant. For scientists it is a species of the genus Ribes (blackberries and currants), which is exclusive to the region of Magallanes, hence the Latin name: Ribes magellanicum. The Spanish conquistadors observed that this bush grew everywhere, much like a weed or zarza, and its leaves reminded them of the grapevine or parra; hence, zarza-parrilla.
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