Juntanza at SUS-TER 2025: Weaving Knowledge and Territories

Diversidad y Desarrollo participated in the SUS-TER Totlal Yoltoc 2025 Meeting, connecting knowledge and territories through Juntanza

On November 18, 2025, the SUS-TER Totlal Yoltoc / Incontro SUS-TER UP Meeting took place, held in person in Mexico and broadcast internationally online. This gathering created a space for academic and territorial exchange, bringing together researchers, community-based organizations, and universities from Latin America and Europe. Diversity & Development (D&D) and the Biocultural Diversity and Territories Platform participated virtually in the session dedicated to exchanges among network institutions, represented by Raquel Maestro Salmoral, Project Coordinator at D&D and the Platform, and co-founder of the collaborative blog Juntanza.

During her intervention, Raquel shared the experience of Juntanza, an initiative launched by D&D and the Platform in 2021 to strengthen dialogues of knowledge among rural, coastal, urban, and Indigenous communities across different countries and territories worldwide. What began as a collaborative blog and digital magazine—now encompassing five editions, 55 articles, and 44 authors—has evolved into a living space for encounter, learning, and territorial resonance.

In her presentation, Raquel highlighted how Juntanza and the Platform have fostered interterritorial initiatives such as Entre Dos Aguas and the Mexico (Colima) – Italy (Puglia) exchange, which connected artisanal fishers from the Italian Mediterranean with communities in Peru and Mexico, as well as Sinergia Brasil–Italia, which brings together artists, universities, and community organizations around territorial identity and community-based tourism.

She also shared D&D’s vision of purpose-driven communication: a participatory process that not only informs but also strengthens collective identities, builds trust, and creates spaces for territories to tell their own stories. Examples include SUS-TER’s LABTER initiatives, digital platforms such as Juntanza and Diversidad Conectada, live international events, podcasts, participatory videos, and training processes for young territorial communicators.

Looking ahead

Looking to the future, D&D’s representative emphasized the importance of continuing to strengthen the SUS-TER network through:

• The co-creation of a communication and dissemination plan with local partners
• The collaborative design of new digital platforms to showcase territorial stories
• The production of audiovisual and artistic content with a participatory approach
• The organization of campaigns, contests, and events to amplify experiences of territorial development rooted in biocultural identity

“Making territory the classroom and communication a bridge,” Raquel concluded, inviting network institutions to continue weaving alliances and nurturing the relationships that sustain processes of sustainable territorial development.

The meeting concluded with a collective reflection session, outlining new lines of action: consolidating network-based research, strengthening inter-university exchange, expanding opportunities for young people, and building connections with other international networks and projects.

From Diversidad y Desarrollo, we celebrate this space, which reaffirms the value of dialogue, cooperation, and biocultural diversity. We also reaffirm our commitment to continuing to connect territories, knowledge, and people in order to build more sustainable and collective futures. We believe in the power of collaboration, peer-to-peer learning, and communication that connects and transforms.

If you are part of a university, territorial organization, artistic collective, or international network and would like to explore collaborations, exchanges, or joint initiatives, we would be delighted to connect.

Write to us and let’s continue weaving territories, knowledge, and possible futures together.