Divided Together Season 2 Episode 2: A Tale of Two Livelihoods

This is the ancestral land of the First People, the Kumeyaay.

Nature's benefits, or the goods and services vital to human health and livelihoods, are also called ecosystem services.  While there are several categories of ecosystem services, of focus today, and increasingly within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, is the category of cultural ecosystem services. These are the non-material benefits that result from paired human and environmental interactions and include stewardship, aesthetics, recreation, and education. For places with strong indigenous and local community presence, these encompass environmental conditions that allow for spiritual experiences, cultural heritage, sense of place, and way of life.

In this episode of Divided Together, we’ll hear from Dr. Kristen Goodrich on her perspective about the Tijuana Estuary’s ecosystem services. We’ll also hear from Adela Bonilla Armenta, who works in a collective in Los Laureles, Tijuana Mexico that focuses on upcycling waste to make beautiful and functional products, and Gregg Cady in the Tijuana River Valley in San Diego who is involved in farm education. We will examine reciprocal relationship with place and hear the stories of two people in a bioregion, with livelihoods that are influenced by their being situated in the Tijuana River Watershed yet on different sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Divided Together is a California State Parks podcast series for Border Field State Park, brought to you by Parks California and the generosity of an anonymous donor.

Adam Greenfield is the engineer and co-producer of this podcast.  Victoria Chavez contributed voiceover for Adela Bonilla. Anne Marie Tipton is the host and co-producer.