Neotropical ornithology: Reckoning with historical assumptions, removing systemic barriers, and reimagining the future

LETICIA SOARES; KRISTINA L. COCKLE; ERNESTO RUELAS INZUNZA; JOSE TOMAS IBARRA; CAROLINA ISABEL MINO; ZULUAGA, SANTIAGO; GRANDE, J. M.; SANTILLÁN, MIGUEL A.

THE CONDOR

COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL SOC

Año: 2023 vol. 125 p. 1 - 31

0010-5422

A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special feature, Advancesin Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge,and views from the Global North, while largely omitting the perspectives of people based within the Neotropics. Here, we review currentstrengths and opportunities in the practice of Neotropical ornithology. Further, we discuss problems with assessing the state of Neotropicalornithology through a northern lens, including discovery narratives, incomplete (and biased) understanding of history and advances, and the promotionof agendas that, while currently popular in the north, may not fit the needs and realities of Neotropical research. We argue that future advancesin Neotropical ornithology will critically depend on identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hold back ornithologists who liveand work in the Neotropics: unreliable and limited funding, exclusion from international research leadership, restricted dissemination of knowledge(e.g., through language hegemony and citation bias), and logistical barriers. Moving forward, we must examine and acknowledge the colonialroots of our discipline, and explicitly promote anti-colonial agendas for research, training, and conservation. We invite our colleagues withinand beyond the Neotropics to join us in creating new models of governance that establish research priorities with vigorous participation of ornithologistsand communities within the Neotropical region. To include a diversity of perspectives, we must systemically address discriminationand bias rooted in the socioeconomic class system, anti-Blackness, anti-Brownness, anti-Indigeneity, misogyny, homophobia, tokenism, andableism. Instead of seeking individual excellence and rewarding top-down leadership, institutions in the North and South can promote collectiveleadership. In adopting these approaches, we, ornithologists, will join a community of researchers across academia building new paradigmsthat can reconcile our relationships and transform science. Spanish and Portuguese translations are available in the Supplementary Material.