Wildlife conservation seems unaffected by decolonization movements that recently led to removing or vandalizing several statues of geographers and colonizers worldwide. Instead, we observe an ...increased emphasis on total protection of species and habitats that, although strategic in a period of environmental crisis, may have grossly negative impacts on living standards of local indigenous communities. In this regard, we should decolonize society, and specifically conservation, by adding new metaphoric statues to the old ones, preferably of those living side by side with wildlife. In this essay, we suggest that zoos, as popular places where urbanized people meet biodiversity, should change their messages that too often reinforce the subtle colonial ideology pervading international environmentalism and often driven by increasing animal rights activism. For example, a new storytelling ethos in zoos should communicate that, in some sensitive contexts (e.g. most tropical countries), the current over-emphasis on protected areas and military law enforcement is also causing serious human rights violations. We need ‘humanised zoos’, i.e. places where conservation of biodiversity is put in a broader socio-ecological context and a central role for the future of ecosystems is given to local communities, ethnic minorities and ‘wise people’ (i.e. people having local traditional knowledge). Zoos should direct more resources toward community-based conservation; foremost, they should shape urban and ‘Western’ attitudes toward wildlife with a less colonized perspective, including spreading the importance of traditional ecological knowledge in ecosystem management.
First paragraph: I was part of a plenary panel on “Bridge Builders” at the 2023 Colorado Food Summit in Denver in December 2023. Echoing a statement I first made at the U.S. Agroecology Summit 2023, ...I explained how the first “bridge” we are building at The Acequia Institute (TAI) is between Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and so-called Western Science (WS). TAI does this work not to verify and legitimize IK by invoking the presumably more rigorous and mathematical methods and materials of WS. TAI enunciates and practices IK through autonomous place-based food sovereignty initiatives. In this work we have determined how best to integrate the methods and materials of selected domains of Western knowledge systems in forms useful for us and the locality. These issues were discussed at the U.S. Agroecology Summit, but in the end they were left largely unresolved. The entire Summit was, as Carmen Cortez and others have rightly observed, plagued by being “Devoid of this spirit of place and people…” (Agroecology Summit ‘Outside Empire’ Subgroup, 2024, p. 2). In my view, it was a gathering fractured by pre-existing and possibly inadvertent and unconscious acts of epistemic violence reminding me of the difference Michael Redclift (1987) observed between top-down environmental managerialism and bottom-up collaborative environmental management. . . .
•Douglas-fir trees teepee poles are a culturally important resource for the Mescalero Apache tribe.•Stands consist of dense, relatively old trees.•Climate-sensitive simulation modeling predicted loss ...of most Douglas-fir.•Assisted migration or other innovative strategies may be needed.
Integrating traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with western science and modeling tools can enhance not only the delivery of culturally important species, but also community support and overall effectiveness of management. This paper presents a case study of co-producing usable science integrating TEK on a culturally important species with a modeling tool, Climate-Forest Vegetation Simulator (C-FVS). The Mescalero Apache tribe (southwestern USA) conduct a coming of age ceremony for young women who follow a traditional way of life. In order to conduct this ceremony, tall, thin teepee poles made from Douglas-fir trees are needed. Douglas-fir trees capable of producing teepee poles are a culturally important resource for the Mescalero Apache tribe. We interacted with medicine people, tribal members, and forest managers to gain insight on characteristics of teepee pole stands. We established thirty, 400 m2 circular plots with nested 100 m2 regeneration plots in teepee pole producing stands to characterize composition, structure, age, growth rates, and fuels. Teepee pole producing stands occupy an elevation range from 2012 to 2561 m, slopes of 3–43%, and aspects from NW to NE. The stands consist of dense, relatively old trees dominated by Douglas-fir, with other species of trees usually present as a minor component. Douglas-firs in teepee pole producing stands averaged 1255 ± 99 trees per ha (TPH), basal area 31.7 ± 1.5 m2/ha, and 18.5 ± 0.5 cm quadratic mean diameters (QMD). Douglas-fir trees in teepee pole producing stands were most commonly 75–100 years old with diameters at breast height (DBH) ranging from 5.1 to 25.4 cm. In order to assess future trajectories of teepee pole stands, we applied C-FVS which incorporates the effects of climate change scenarios over the next 100 years. We compared three standard scenarios ranging from moderate to severe climate change: Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5. Simulated future forests at the current plot locations even under the most mild climate change scenario (RCP 4.5) did not contain Douglas-fir after a century of modeling. Complete forest mortality was predicted under RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5. Comparing bioclimatic niche modeling of Douglas-fir with downscaled future climate scenarios indicated that the species would have to be planted at least 305 m higher to maintain 21st century viability under RCP 4.5 and 6.0, or at least 610 m higher under RCP 8.0. The characterization of current teepee pole producing stands and simulations of future effects of climate change provide useful information to the Mescalero Apache Tribe to support management decisions on how they would like to preserve this cultural important resource.
Ecological restoration is a crucial tool for mitigating climate change and addressing the global biodiversity crisis. The extensive knowledge of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) will ...play a key role in accelerating the advancement of restoration efforts but has historically been excluded. BIPOC traditions and practices of protecting and restoring ecological communities include intricate socio‐ecological systems whose holistic practices preserve cultural knowledge while simultaneously addressing environmental issues.
If we are to have a seat at the table for everyone and meet the lofty goals of the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to contribute to reversing the biodiversity and climate crises, the field of restoration ecology can no longer afford to exclude BIPOC communities and their irreplaceable social, cultural, and ecological knowledge.
Solution: We offer opportunities to engage BIPOC communities and their contributions to restoration, and to introduce a restoration community to connect and center BIPOC through the Black Earth Restoration Collective. This is a call to action to those with power and access in restoration ecology to make vital shifts needed to accomplish a more equitable and just approach to restoration.
Ecological restoration is a crucial tool for mitigating climate change and the global biodiversity crisis, but the extensive knowledge of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) is often excluded though will play a key role in accelerating the advancement of restoration efforts. We argue for the inclusion of BIPOC into restoration, their ideas and introduce The Black Earth Restoration Collective to propel this need and work.
This study portrays the roles of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in the mitigation of natural hazards. Menoreh Hill in Kulon Progo experienced more than 200 landslides in 2022 and its ...communities implemented TEK to mitigate them. Hence, this research quantitatively analyzes the role of agriculture-related TEK, especially those applied in hilly areas, to support household resilience to natural hazards. Authors surveyed 106 farm households and interviewed eight key informants in Banjararum and Sidoharjo Villages, Kalibawang and Samigaluh Sub-districts, Kulon Progo Regency, D.I. Yogyakarta. The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression. The descriptive statistics showed that farmers in both villages are highest in practicing alley cropping and integrated farming, while also applying mixed cropping, multiple cropping and locally based planting schedule (pranata mangsa). From binary logistic regression, authors found that TEK practices of multiple cropping, alley cropping and pranata mangsa support farm household resilience to natural hazards, especially landslides. The TEK practices serve as sources of buffer and adaptation capacity in the development of farm household resilience. Interestingly, mixed cropping and membership in farmer groups tend to weaken resilience, as mixed cropping often complicates the recovery efforts in the farmlands, and farmers’ groups are not conditioned to act promptly during hazards or disasters. While TEK has been proven to take roles in the mitigation and adaptation to natural hazards, there is a need to integrate scientific knowledge to improve its optimum benefits.
•This research generates a framework for understanding knowledge co-production with Indigenous communities.•Some Indigenous communities are effectively engaging in science-policy negotiations by ...linking knowledge systems.•Linking knowledge systems (including western science and traditional ecological knowledge linkages) occurs a political context.•The analysis proposes using “Indigenous articulations” as a non-reductive framing for Indigenous knowledge linkages.•More inclusive policy-making requires resources for Indigenous communities to create their own knowledge constructions and plans.
Despite increasing interest in learning from Indigenous communities, efforts to involve Indigenous knowledge in environmental policy-making are often fraught with contestations over knowledge, values, and interests. Using the co-production of knowledge and social order (Jasanoff, 2004), this case study seeks to understand how some Indigenous communities are engaging in science-policy negotiations by linking traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), western science, and other knowledge systems. The analysis follows twenty years of Indigenous forest management negotiations between the Xáxli’p community and the Ministry of Forests in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada, which resulted in the Xáxli’p Community Forest (XCF). The XCF is an eco-cultural restoration initiative that established an exclusive forest tenure for Xáxli’p over the majority of their aboriginal territory—a political shift that was co-produced with new articulations of Xáxli’p knowledge. This research seeks to understand knowledge co-production with Indigenous communities, and suggests that existing knowledge integration concepts are insufficient to address ongoing challenges with power asymmetries and Indigenous knowledge. Rather, this work proposes interpreting XCF knowledge production strategies through the framework of “Indigenous articulations,” where Indigenous peoples self-determine representations of their identities and interests in a contemporary socio-political context. This work has broader implications for considering how Indigenous knowledge is shaping science-policy negotiations, and vice versa.
PURPOSE OF REVIEWAs a subset of the organism-wide reaction to severe infection, the host vascular response has received increasing attention in recent years. The transformation that small blood ...vessels undergo to facilitate the clearance of pathogens may become harmful to the host if it occurs too broadly or if it is sustained too long. Adverse clinical manifestations of leaky and inflamed blood vessels include edema impairing the function of critical organs and circulatory shock.
RECENT FINDINGSThe study suggests that this host vascular response may be both measurable and potentially targetable. Tie2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) heavily enriched in the vascular endothelium whose tonic signaling actively maintains vascular quiescence. When Tie2 becomes inactivated, important molecular brakes are released in the endothelium, which in turn potentiate inflammation and vascular leakage. The ligands of Tie2, Angiopoietin-1 and Angiopoietin-2, regulate its activation status. Genetic and molecular studies spanning thousands of humans link Tie2 and imbalance of the Angiopoietins to major adverse clinical events arising from bacterial sepsis, other severe infections, and even acute sterile inflammation.
SUMMARYThe Tie2 signaling axis may constitute a molecular switch in systemic inflammation that can be measured and manipulated to target the host vascular response therapeutically.
Abstract Global strategies under the scope of CBD are important in guiding policies and resources for the conservation of biological diversity. This paper emphasized the need to develop actions under ...the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) with measurable results up to 2020, regarding the status and perspectives related to Targets 12 and 13, focusing on the Brazilian context in order to identify gaps and actions to achieve the goals for conservation and sustainable use of plants. It should be noted that Target 12 also covers logging, not necessarily directly related to indigenous peoples and traditional communities, but may threaten their livelihoods. In Brazil, scientific knowledge about the ecological effects of the harvesting of non-timber forest products is still limited, and few studies have contributed to the establishment of legal regulations for collection and management. With regard to target 13, which concerns traditional and indigenous knowledge about plant use and the dependence of these peoples on plants, there are still a lack of integrative and effective policy initiatives. However, considering the negative political context of recent decades and exacerbated in recent years in relation to biodiversity conservation and indigenous peoples and local communities, profound changes are necessary in the Brazilian scenario, with strong support and recognition for indigenous peoples and local communities, so that any objective related to the achievement of the goals of the GSPC is minimally achieved.
Resumo As estratégias globais no âmbito da CDB são importantes para orientar políticas e recursos para a conservação da diversidade biológica. Este artigo enfatizou a necessidade de desenvolver ações no âmbito da Estratégia Global para a Conservação de Plantas (GSPC) com resultados mensuráveis até 2020, no que se refere ao status e as perspectivas relacionadas às metas 12 e 13, com foco no contexto brasileiro, visando identificar lacunas e ações para alcançar os objetivos para conservação e o uso sustentável das plantas. Salienta-se que a meta 12 abrange também a exploração madeireira, não necessariamente de relação direta com povos indígenas e comunidades tradicionais, porém pode vir a ameaçar seus meios de subsistência. No Brasil, o conhecimento científico sobre os efeitos ecológicos da coleta de produtos florestais não madeireiros ainda é limitado e poucos estudos contribuíram para o estabelecimento de regulamentações legais para coleta e manejo. Com relação à meta 13, que diz respeito aos conhecimentos tradicionais e indígenas sobre o uso de plantas e à dependência desses povos pelas plantas, ainda faltam iniciativas de políticas integradoras e eficazes. No entanto, considerando o contexto político negativo das últimas décadas e exacerbado nos últimos anos, em relação à conservação da biodiversidade e aos povos indígenas e comunidades locais são necessárias mudanças profundas no cenário brasileiro, com forte apoio e reconhecimento para os povos indígenas e comunidades locais, para que qualquer objetivo relacionado ao alcance das metas da GSPC seja minimamente perseguido.
Design by Radical Indigenism Julia Watson; Hala Abukhodair; Naeema Ali Naeema Ali ...
SPOOL (Delft. Print),
12/2021, Letnik:
8, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article considers the traditional water systems of indigenous cultures and explores their innovations as unique responses to the impacts of climate change in the global south. Local communities ...have been living with and developing water-responsive infrastructures for generations that engage and support the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Many of these innovations improve coastal resiliency, yet remain undocumented and unexplored in the evolution of contemporary solutions. Rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, these technologies work symbiotically with, rather than against nature, and offer examples of a more comprehensive approach to underwater and intertidal design. These innovations are Lo—TEK, a term coined by designer and author Julia Watson, that is defined as resilient infrastructures developed by indigenous people through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) (Watson 2019). The movement to bring these innovations to the forefront of the design field counters the idea that Lo—TEK indigenous innovation is low-tech, a term often incorrectly applied to indigenous innovation that means unsophisticated, uncomplicated, and primitive. In actuality, Lo—TEK aligns to today’s sustainable values of low-energy, low-impact and low-cost, while producing complex nature-based innovations that are inherently sustainable. Lo-TEK expands the definition of contemporary technology by rebuilding our understanding of climate resilient design using indigenous knowledge and practices that are sustainable, adaptable, and borne out of necessity. Indigenous people have learned to live symbiotically with their environments, especially water. This essay will explore the Kuttanad Kayalnilam Farming System by the Malayalis in India, the Sangjiyutang Mulberry Dyke and Fish Ponds in China, and the Ramli Lagoon farms in Ghar El Melh, Tunisia. These innovations are inherently resilient to the stresses of the climate and are multi-functional, symbiotic structures themselves. While not directly intended for protection from the new challenge of sea level rise, they can inform how we can build circular water systems that work with the environment, rather than disrupting it.
Design by Radical Indigenism Julia Watson; Hala Abukhodair; Naeema Ali ...
SPOOL (Delft. Print),
12/2021, Letnik:
8, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article considers the traditional water systems of indigenous cultures and explores their innovations as unique responses to the impacts of climate change in the global south. Local communities ...have been living with and developing water-responsive infrastructures for generations that engage and support the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Many of these innovations improve coastal resiliency, yet remain undocumented and unexplored in the evolution of contemporary solutions. Rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, these technologies work symbiotically with, rather than against nature, and offer examples of a more comprehensive approach to underwater and intertidal design. These innovations are Lo—TEK, a term coined by designer and author Julia Watson, that is defined as resilient infrastructures developed by indigenous people through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) (Watson 2019). The movement to bring these innovations to the forefront of the design field counters the idea that Lo—TEK indigenous innovation is low-tech, a term often incorrectly applied to indigenous innovation that means unsophisticated, uncomplicated, and primitive. In actuality, Lo—TEK aligns to today’s sustainable values of low-energy, low-impact and low-cost, while producing complex nature-based innovations that are inherently sustainable. Lo-TEK expands the definition of contemporary technology by rebuilding our understanding of climate resilient design using indigenous knowledge and practices that are sustainable, adaptable, and borne out of necessity. Indigenous people have learned to live symbiotically with their environments, especially water. This essay will explore the Kuttanad Kayalnilam Farming System by the Malayalis in India, the Sangjiyutang Mulberry Dyke and Fish Ponds in China, and the Ramli Lagoon farms in Ghar El Melh, Tunisia. These innovations are inherently resilient to the stresses of the climate and are multi-functional, symbiotic structures themselves. While not directly intended for protection from the new challenge of sea level rise, they can inform how we can build circular water systems that work with the environment, rather than disrupting it.
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