Ramales de la Victoria (EFE).- A pilot project in Cantabria is collecting the knowledge of older people who live in the Asón river basin to apply their experiences to benefit the protection and conservation of the natural environment.
This is the initiative “Asón Lab: weaving networks for the transmission of knowledge”, promoted by the non-profit organization Red Cambera, which mixes environmental objectives with others of a social nature, in order to alleviate the problem of unwanted loneliness among that group.
“The sensitivity and contribution that older people can offer seems not to be taken into account in certain skills,” the coordinator of the Asón Lab project, Paloma Fernández Valdor, told EFE.
With this citizen laboratory of adapted methodology, an attempt is made to “generate spaces” in which the inhabitants of the Asón territory can share their human relationship with the river, through “past memories” to compare them with their “present perception”.
“For example, what harmful practices for the environment have been eliminated, or the good ones that have been forgotten, but should be recovered”, details its coordinator.
laundries and mills
The participants who attend these open dynamics, especially those over 65 years of age, allude to the socialization factor that in the past was generated in the laundries located on the banks of the river or in the fluvial mills to grind the grain.
“They were activities that took several hours to do and people would get together there to chat,” explains Paloma Fernández Valdor about some of the testimonies collected.
There is also talk of habits that already seem to evoke history books, such as filling buckets of water from the river simply to consume at home or eating fish, such as trout or salmon, which, according to what they say, “are not as abundant as before” and they made up the main diet of residents in the middle of the last century.
Some basic survival customs that were complemented by leisure or enjoyment of taking a dip on hot days or congregating on festive days around recreational areas.
The rivers are dirtier
On the other hand, the appreciation of now for these ‘wise men’ of life is that the “river is dirtier” despite the fact that there are sanitation facilities and, without expressly mentioning the term “climate change”, they detect a lack of flow, added to periods of drought that before, they say, did not occur.
Through various sessions, which will take place throughout the year, Asón Lab technicians will compile all these opinions that have arisen in six municipalities of the Asón basin: Ampuero, Arredondo, Ramales de la Victoria, Rasines, Ruesga and Soba.
With these experiences, specific actions will be agreed in relation to the river that are “still undefined”, because the project is in an initial phase with the first “mapping” meetings that are dragging a significant number of curious and supporters.
Likewise, a guide will be published in which not only the applied work methodology will be considered, but also the results to be able to replicate the model in other river-backed basins.
Since 2010, Red Cambera has encouraged, through different initiatives, citizens to participate voluntarily in nature conservation, especially in river ecosystems.
The Asón Lab project, which is financed by the EDP Foundation, represents a further step in the goal of involving all age ranges, since it focuses on the contribution of people over 65 thanks to the support of associations of retired and cultural, town halls, social services and the Permanent University for the Third Age of Cantabria (Unate). EFE
By Miguel Ramos