Chile Program Office
University of North Texas
Environmental Education, Science & Technology Bldg. 325C
PO Box 310920
Denton, TX 76203
Phone: 940-369-8211
Alt Phone: 940-565-2981
Fax: 940-565-4448
Email: chile@unt.edu
Physical Location:
EESAT Building
1704 West Mulberry St.
Omora Ethnobotanical Park
The Omora Ethnobotanical Park is a collaborative initiative between the Omora NGO and the University of Magallanes. The Park is located 3 kilometres west of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Isla Navarino. Within the park interpretative paths 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 Robálo River runs through the park and provides potable water to the town of Puerto Williams. The Omora Park aspires to be an outdoor classroom for students and teachers, a natural laboratory to study the effects of global climate change and a public space to try many forms of living together based on solidarity and respect between human beings and other biological species.
In collaboration with the University of Magallanes, Chile, a Multi-ethnic Bird Guide of the Austral Temperate Forests of South America was published in 2001. With the help of the Yahgan Grandmothers Úrsula and Christina Calderón, and the story teller, Lorenzo Aillapan, this book is a collection of bird songs, names and stories recorded to express the voices of the multiple species and indigenous, rural and urban cultures, whose lives are interwoven in the temperate forest region of South America.
To listen to the story of Omora, please click on this .mp3", taken from the book "Twenty Winged Poems from the Native Forests of Southern Chile." L. Aillapan (2001).