EWA: the Ethno-ornithology World Atlas

We think it's time to see a bigger picture in conservation, to hear people of every nation talking about birds. welcome to EWA...

..EWA is an online space where people from every country can share their knowledge of birds, in their own language. More than any other animals, birds inspire us - culturally, practically and spiritually - and EWA provides a shared space reflecting peoples' connections with birds through language, stories, through the very names we give to birds, through music, dance and art of all kinds, and yes as food...

..EWA is a living, interactive, archive; a showcase for a global community interested in, and concerned about, birds, and wholly contributed by members of the public...

..By collecting and sharing culturally relevant knowledge of birds, including local and traditional ecological knowledge, EWA will help find new ways to engage people everywhere in bird conservation both locally and globally...

But EWA needs your help…

The world is losing its biocultural diversity. Every day, all around the world, birds, and the diverse cultural connections that people have with them, are threatened with extinction. EWA aims to help local people to document, affirm and energise their own cultural connections with the natural world in general, and with birds in particular.

The EWA Fund (maintained by BirdLife) has been set up to support the engagement of local communities, individuals and researchers. Monies raised will support:

• funding for local communities to document their own cultural associations with birds
• a global network of people to support communities
• developing software to map languages as well as the birds the speak about
• translating key materials
• research into the diverse ways bird lore supports bird conservation
• ongoing development of EWA and its app at https://EWAtlas.net

• EWA exists because of the people (and birds) that inform it, use it, contribute to it, and help guide its future. For this reason, EWA is grateful for every contribution, however small. Please help create EWA as the peoples' space, as your space.

To talk to us about sponsorship, please contact the Secretariat at ewa@zoo.ox.ac.uk

EWA is a collaboration between Oxford University’s Department of Zoology and School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, and BirdLife International. For more information about EWA and its collaborative partners,  please visit: https://www.EWAtlas.net/