Collective action and social sustainability: A perspective from the Napo Sumaco UNESCO Global Geopark

Collective action that combines traditional practices, social memory, and geoheritage can be a powerful force for social sustainability. Governments or academic institutions often initiate UNESCO Global Geoparks, yet bottom-up processes may be more sustainable. Napo Sumaco Geopark, the first in the Amazon region to receive UNESCO designation, shows how collaborative action links geological features with ancestral lifeways and shared memories to transform governance. Its sustainability lies not only in conserving geoheritage but also in strengthening community life through ancestral systems such as Minka and Turkana, which foster cooperation, reciprocity, social cohesion, and shared responsibility in territorial management. This intercultural governance model transforms the geopark into a space for mutual learning and a participatory social economy, offering lessons on how socially grounded approaches rooted in ancestral collective practices can guide public policy toward territorial justice and the defense of the rights of native peoples and nature.