Tomorrow, within the framework of World Environment Day, the inauguration of the exhibition “Living in total biodiversity with lions, tigers or wolves” will take place, organized by the Biodiversity Foundation in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural Sciences of the CSIC.

During 2010, the International Year of Biological Diversity, both entities intend to provide a different vision on the conservation of biodiversity, through an ethnobiological exhibition on the coexistence between humans, large carnivores and biodiversity; a portrait of the need for a new balance between our species and others.

It is a public presentation, in Spain, of this discipline, ethnobiology, which comparatively studies the relationships between human societies and nature. These relationships include multiple aspects, from ecology to cultural and religious representations of nature, including agrarian systems and conservation and development policies. The exhibition covers the habits of life of three traditional societies that have maintained a balance between their way of existence and the conservation of the ecosystem.

Through a tour of the W del Niger National Park (Africa), the Sariska Tiger Reserve (India) and the Montesinho Natural Park (Portugal), the visitor will be able to “live” with the gourmantché bow and arrow hunters, the Gurjar shepherds and the villages of Montesinho; human groups that have lived daily with lions, tigers and wolves. This is the first presentation, in our country, of the culture of the Gourmantché tribe, as well as a clear portrait of the Gurjar culture of Rajasthan and a staging of the link between the rural societies of the Iberian Peninsula with the wolf and the large fauna.

This exhibition is mainly based on the research of the anthropologist and ethnobiologist João Pedro Galhano Alves, who not only lived with these populations, but also lived with their rules. The exhibition includes summaries of the results of his work, part of his photographic archive and a representation of his collection of ethnological and ethnobiological samples obtained in the peoples and ecosystems he studied. Images and emblematic pieces from the National Museum of Natural Sciences and other researchers complete the exhibition.

Gourmantché bows with poisoned arrows, magical-religious amulets and crooks of Gurjar and Peul shepherds. Something as simple and at the same time as incredibly artisanal as a plate made with wild tree leaves or a sheepdog carlanca from the northwest of the peninsula are just some objects that will “transport” the public to a different reality, where nature and human beings merge into a single concept.

The lion, the tiger and the Iberian wolf, together with other species of naturalized specimens from the collection of the National Museum of Natural Sciences, such as the buffalo, the wild boar or the curious aardvark offer testimony of the beauty and variety of fauna of these regions, of what it means to “live in total biodiversity”.

The exhibition is aimed at visitors of all ages and covers all kinds of interests: travel, ethnology, culture, ecology, species conservation and research. It is open to the public from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays and holidays, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (C/ José Gutiérrez Abascal nº 2, Madrid) (www.mncn.csic.es).