Researchers Joana Roque de Pinho and Troy Sternberg, leaders of the Mystical Natures project, organised the final MYNA symposium, entitled ‘Pastoralism in transition: Exploring intersections of religious and environmental changes’. The purpose of this event was to bring together the expertise of academics, Maasai pastoralists, NGO professionals and conservation specialists from four continents to reflect on the connections between environmental change and religious transformations in dryland pastoral communities.
For three days, Lisbon became a meeting point for around 35 participants from countries such as Kenya, India, Japan, Mongolia, the USA, Brazil, Mozambique and some European countries. The project was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Ref. PTDC/SOC ANT/2990/2020), through CEI-Iscte and the symposium was also supported by the Land Group, and the seed grant projects promoted by CEI-Iscte (Ref. UIDB/03122/2020).
The symposium began with a lecture by Professor Joel Robbins (University of Cambridge), who, via videoconference, gave us profound reflections on religion, values and climate change.
The participants brought stories from all over the world, from the steppes of Mongolia to the Kenyan savannahs. These were days of round tables, stimulating discussions and, above all, authentic moments, provided by the Maasai pastoralists’ sharing of their experiences in the face of environmental and religious change. The MYNA team – Joana Roque de Pinho, Angela Kronenberg García, Batbuyan Batjav, Troy Sternberg and Megan Wainwright – also presented the first results of the project, while presentations from other parts of the world, such as Brazil, India, Romania and Portugal, enriched the discussions.
On the third day, an Open Space session was organised, where everyone could propose relevant topics for debate. Thanks to the collaboration of the Museum of Lisbon, this session took place in its gardens, where ideas were shared that arose from the meeting of so many cultures and experiences.
While most had to say goodbye on Friday evening, for those who stayed the weekend and braved the cold seas of Nazaré and visited agro-forestry projects/regenerative grazing farms in the Alentejo, the MYNA symposium officially closed with a roundtable on Monday the 11th focused on mobile pastoralism in Kenya, Mongolia and Portugal at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, in collaboration with the Centre of Applied Ecology.
