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Biocultural Diversity Conservation
The field of biocultural diversity is emerging as a dynamic, integrative approach to understanding the links between nature and culture and the interrelationships between humans and the environment at scales from the global to the local. Its multifaceted contributions have ranged from theoretical elaborations, to mappings of the overlapping distributions of biological and cultural diversity, to the development of indicators as tools to measure, assess, and monitor the state and trends of biocultural diversity, to on-the-ground implementation in field projects. This book is a unique compendium and analysis of projects from all around the world that take an integrated biocultural approach to sustaining cultures and biodiversity. The 45 projects reviewed exemplify a new focus in this is based on the emerging realization that protecting and restoring biodiversity and maintaining and revitalizing cultural diversity and cultural vitality are intimately, indeed inextricably, interrelated. Published with Terralingua and IUCN
312 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2010
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August 31, 2024
wow. I was on a long reading hiatus with this book.
one day I was online and came across the word anthrozoology, which intrigued me, the study of the relationship between humans and animals. that led me to this book, which deals with as the title says, biocultural diversity conservation - conservation projects undertaken with indigenous peoples, where there is a recognition that traditional human societies are inextricably linked with the ecosystems they reside in, and that you must conserve both the environment and the culture - including language - in order to have an effective approach to retaining biodiversity. (the approach can also be expanded to include rural non-indigenous people and urban indigenous and non-indigenous people).
this is an approach that has been growing since the mid 90s, and this book (published in 2010, so nearly 15 years ago now) is an attempt to raise up local projects undertaken either as grassroots projects arising from indigenous groups or as collaborations between outside groups and researchers and indigenous people - true collaborations, not just impositions. the aims were to describe aspects these diverse projects had in common and understand what practices work for these type of projects, as well as to create a network of researchers (they also made a web portal for ongoing use) that can share information, get assistance, and generally network this growing field.
it didn't make for compelling reading. it's a "sourcebook" which is a step up from a textbook, it's academic, it's obviously non-fiction, and the bulk of it was composed of 1-3 page descriptions of the projects, which is very choppy reading, filled with acronyms for NGOs. it was also depressing, to read about how indigenous people are screwed over not just in places like the US and australia and canada, but globally, oppressed by their own governments even when there isn't a white colonizer / indigenous people of color dynamic. although oppression takes very racist and sexist tones in our world, it's certainly not limited by that - some people and paradigms just are cancerous, they want unlimited power and wealth in a clearly finite material world. if humanity acted ethically all the way along, the world would look very different today. governments and multinational corporations are governed by power and profit, not ethics. there are a lot of people doing good work in the world - the number of NGOs at work, and their funding institutions, in the descriptions of these projects is amazing.
a lot of biocultural diversity conservation principles are very intuitive to me. I've been a door canvasser for greenpeace, I'm vegan, I'm a member of a quaker meeting. environmentalism, sustainability, non-hierarchical decision-making, social justice, diversity, all these are things that have long been a part of my value system. I went to hampshire college, where one of the main principles is integration between different academic disciplines, so the discussions of the need to break down barriers between social justice endeavors and cultural preservation endeavors and environmental conservation endeavors and to view them as an interlinked whole seem very natural to me. obviously for people who are actively using this sourcebook to inform the work that they are doing, they are going to be really drilling down into the specifics; for me as an interested observer it was more a case of becoming informed about new thought in conservation and understanding the need to conserve ecosystems including the people who depend on them rather than always attempting to set aside reserved land outside of human habitation.
I learned the term "landraces", which are domesticated crops or animals that people have developed in their specific environments (think the mind-boggling variety of potatoes in the peruvian highlands, the many types of gourds used for food and storage in eastern africa, etc.). there was also interesting discussion of scaling from local to national - how local projects are affected by or feed into national policy/the enforcement of national policy. and in general this was corroboration that it's not just colonialism that screwed people over, but people in power everywhere screw over their own people - you see why marx focused on class above all else. but communism falls into the pitfall of regarding everything based on its economic value, whereas the value of the relationship between human beings and our planet can't be priced or quantified. this also fits with my belief system where not everything is able to be tangible, scientifically observed and described, and especially not commodified (my thesis project at hampshire was subtitled "a study in the commodification of culture").
so yeah, I was not the intended audience for this book and it was not the most riveting read ever but it was definitely valuable to read it, even though it took me over two months because I put it down for so long. I'm glad I picked it back up, I vibed with it, and if you do work in indigenous social justice or environmental conservation, it's probably very valuable.
one day I was online and came across the word anthrozoology, which intrigued me, the study of the relationship between humans and animals. that led me to this book, which deals with as the title says, biocultural diversity conservation - conservation projects undertaken with indigenous peoples, where there is a recognition that traditional human societies are inextricably linked with the ecosystems they reside in, and that you must conserve both the environment and the culture - including language - in order to have an effective approach to retaining biodiversity. (the approach can also be expanded to include rural non-indigenous people and urban indigenous and non-indigenous people).
this is an approach that has been growing since the mid 90s, and this book (published in 2010, so nearly 15 years ago now) is an attempt to raise up local projects undertaken either as grassroots projects arising from indigenous groups or as collaborations between outside groups and researchers and indigenous people - true collaborations, not just impositions. the aims were to describe aspects these diverse projects had in common and understand what practices work for these type of projects, as well as to create a network of researchers (they also made a web portal for ongoing use) that can share information, get assistance, and generally network this growing field.
it didn't make for compelling reading. it's a "sourcebook" which is a step up from a textbook, it's academic, it's obviously non-fiction, and the bulk of it was composed of 1-3 page descriptions of the projects, which is very choppy reading, filled with acronyms for NGOs. it was also depressing, to read about how indigenous people are screwed over not just in places like the US and australia and canada, but globally, oppressed by their own governments even when there isn't a white colonizer / indigenous people of color dynamic. although oppression takes very racist and sexist tones in our world, it's certainly not limited by that - some people and paradigms just are cancerous, they want unlimited power and wealth in a clearly finite material world. if humanity acted ethically all the way along, the world would look very different today. governments and multinational corporations are governed by power and profit, not ethics. there are a lot of people doing good work in the world - the number of NGOs at work, and their funding institutions, in the descriptions of these projects is amazing.
a lot of biocultural diversity conservation principles are very intuitive to me. I've been a door canvasser for greenpeace, I'm vegan, I'm a member of a quaker meeting. environmentalism, sustainability, non-hierarchical decision-making, social justice, diversity, all these are things that have long been a part of my value system. I went to hampshire college, where one of the main principles is integration between different academic disciplines, so the discussions of the need to break down barriers between social justice endeavors and cultural preservation endeavors and environmental conservation endeavors and to view them as an interlinked whole seem very natural to me. obviously for people who are actively using this sourcebook to inform the work that they are doing, they are going to be really drilling down into the specifics; for me as an interested observer it was more a case of becoming informed about new thought in conservation and understanding the need to conserve ecosystems including the people who depend on them rather than always attempting to set aside reserved land outside of human habitation.
I learned the term "landraces", which are domesticated crops or animals that people have developed in their specific environments (think the mind-boggling variety of potatoes in the peruvian highlands, the many types of gourds used for food and storage in eastern africa, etc.). there was also interesting discussion of scaling from local to national - how local projects are affected by or feed into national policy/the enforcement of national policy. and in general this was corroboration that it's not just colonialism that screwed people over, but people in power everywhere screw over their own people - you see why marx focused on class above all else. but communism falls into the pitfall of regarding everything based on its economic value, whereas the value of the relationship between human beings and our planet can't be priced or quantified. this also fits with my belief system where not everything is able to be tangible, scientifically observed and described, and especially not commodified (my thesis project at hampshire was subtitled "a study in the commodification of culture").
so yeah, I was not the intended audience for this book and it was not the most riveting read ever but it was definitely valuable to read it, even though it took me over two months because I put it down for so long. I'm glad I picked it back up, I vibed with it, and if you do work in indigenous social justice or environmental conservation, it's probably very valuable.
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