Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Biocultural Conservation and Biocultural Ethics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation

Part of the book series: Ecology and Ethics ((ECET,volume 3))

Abstract

Sustainable forms of co-inhabitation in this world are not only possibilities; they are actualities. However, for their expression, it is essential to undertake a twofold task: (1) to precisely and severely sanction those agents who act guided by a self-absorbed economic interest threating the sustainability of life, and (2) to decisively defend those traditions of thought and communities who favor the continuity of life in its diversity of biological and cultural expressions. For the second task to be undertaken effectively, it is critical to understand that the conservation of, and the access to, the diverse native habitats is the condition of possibility for the continuity of the diverse and sustainable life habits of communities of co-inhabitants that inhabit them. The conservation of habitats and life habits is so critical that it constitutes an ethical imperative that should be incorporated into government policies as a matter of socio-environmental justice. To implement this ethical imperative, it is essential to reorient global society to foster a culture that achieves a better integration of ontological-, ecosocial-, and ethical-biocultural foundations into education, policies, and governance. This triple integration aims to contribute to more fully understanding pressing socio-environmental problems and to more effectively implement biocultural conservation. In order to contribute to this triple integration, we offer the “3Hs conceptual lens” of the biocultural ethic to re-cognize and re-value the multiplicity of ecological worldviews, practices, and values hosted by diverse cultures in heterogeneous regions of the planet that contribute to the sustainability of life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    I use the expression “other-than-human” to avoid the dichotomy derived from the most common expression “nonhuman.” It overcomes this dichotomy for two reasons. First, it refers to the set of beings that inhabit ecosystems, biotic beings (humans, other animals, plants), and abiotic beings (rivers , rocks, glaciers). Second, the expression “other-than-human” enables us to understand that these beings inhabit not only the biophysical reality but also the images, symbols, and values of our cultures. Therefore, they are co-inhabitants in our minds as well as in the habitats shared by biocultural communities , which include biophysical and linguistic domains of reality, oneiric, and waking phases of our lives (Rozzi 2012a, b).

  2. 2.

    As Uruguay’s former President José Mujica has said, “we must understand that the world’s indigents are not from Africa or Latin America, they are from all of humanity.” Address to the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations at its New York headquarters, USA: https://gadebate.un.org/en/68/uruguay(accessed August 19, 2017)

  3. 3.

    Both terms multiversity and pluriversity have been used in educational and other realms.

    The term multiversity was coined by Clark Kerr, President of the University of California, in the 1960s. He defined it as a university focused on research, an inconsistent institution, not a community, but several. It did not prosper, but later, in 1982, the Multiversity of Buenos Aires was founded in Argentina under the leadership of Miguel Grinberg, Leonardo Sacco, and Fabricio Simonelli, who promoted the reflection group called “The Culture of the Future.” In 1989, the Franciscan Multiversity of Latin America was founded in Montevideo, Uruguay, as an institution that combines teaching with practice, research with promotion, and reflection with affectivity, with a deep ethical commitment to a re-appreciation and re-encountering with all forms of life. Subsequently, multiversities have been founded in Malaysia (1998), Mexico (1998), India (India International Multiversity, 1998), Africa (Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity, 1999), and Spain (Multiversity of Agroecology, Biodiversity and Cultures, 2009) with the aim to create free, open, intercultural educational communities .

    The term pluriversity has acquired growing relevance in two complementary realms. First, the crisis and exhaustion of the present academic model with its origins in the universalism of the Enlightenment (see Castrillón 2009; Echeverría 2012; Boidin et al. 2012). Second, the related term pluriversality is being progressively used by decolonial thinkers to denote the entanglement of coexisting worldviews, which today are interconnected but subject to differential power relationships (Dussel 2002; Escobar 2011; Mignolo 2011).

  4. 4.

    The World Social Forum (WSF) started in 2001 in Brazil, running as a “parallel forum” to the neoliberal World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Just like market globalists, who treat the WEF as a platform to project their ideas and values to a global audience, justice globalists utilize the WSF as one of the chief production sites of their ideological and policy alternatives. The WSF brings together thousands of participants to workshops, conferences, artistic performances, and other activities on socio-environmental themes (see de Sousa-Santos 2005).

  5. 5.

    With a voice of resistance, unity, and change, the Declaration of the IV Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala in 2005 affirms that the resistance and historical struggle of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in defense of their territories and cultural identity today extend to every corner of the continent. The Declaration culminates stating that: “Another America is Possible! Never Again an America without the Indigenous Peoples!” (http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/index_en.php; accessed March 17, 2016). (http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/index_en.php; accessed March 17, 2016).

References

  • Angé O, Chipa A, Condori P, Ccoyo AC, Mamani L, Pacco R, Quispe N, Quispe W, Sutta M (2018) Interspecies respect and potato conservation in the Peruvian cradle of domestication. Conserv Soc 16:30–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albó X (2018) Suma qamaña or living well together: a contribution to biocultural conservation. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 333–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Batibo H (2005) Language decline and death in Africa: Causes, consequences and challenges. Multilingual Matters Limited, Clevedon

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boidin C, Cohen J, Grosfoguel R (2012) Introduction: from university to pluriversity: a decolonial approach to the present crisis of western universities. Hum Archit: J Sociol Self-Knowl 10:2

    Google Scholar 

  • Calle-Collado A (2015) Podemos y el auge municipalista. Sobre partidos-ciudadanía y vieja política. Empiria. Revista de metodología de ciencias sociales 32:169–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Calle-Collado A (2016) Ciclos políticos y ciclos de movilización. Entre el 15M, Podemos y nuevos municipalismos. Historia Actual Online 40:79–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Callicott JB (1997) Earth’s insights: a multicultural survey of ecological ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian outback. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Castrillón AH (2009) La Cátedra de Estudios Afrocolombianos: un espacio para reflexionar sobre la pluriversidad en los modos de vivir la afrocolombianidad. Revista Educación y Pedagogía 19(48):83–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakravorty S (2016) Andean cosmovision and diplomacy for life. Strateg Anal 40:440–450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Sousa Santos B (2005) The future of the world social forum: the work of translation. Development 48(2):15–22

    Google Scholar 

  • de Sousa Santos B (2010) Refundación del Estado en América Latina: perspectivas desde una epistemología del Sur. Plural editores, La Paz

    Google Scholar 

  • dos Reyes P, Silva da Lima SR (2018) Candomblé in Brazil: the contribution of African-origin religions to biocultural diversity in the Americas. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 379–391

    Google Scholar 

  • Dussel E (2002) World-system and trans-modernity. Nepantla: Views From South 3:221–244

    Google Scholar 

  • Echeverria J (2012) Pluralidad de la filosofía: pluriversidad versus universidad. Ontology Studies (12):373–388

    Google Scholar 

  • Escobar A (2011) Sustainability: design for the pluriverse. Development 54:137–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gavin M, McCarter J, Mead A, Berkes F, Stepp JR, Peterson D, Tang R (2015) Defining biocultural approaches to conservation. Trends Ecol Evol 30(3):140–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hegde P, James G (2018) Challenging biocultural homogenization: experiences of the Chipko and Appiko movements in India. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 427–442 

    Google Scholar 

  • Maffi L (ed) (2001) On biocultural diversity. Linking language, knowledge, and the environment. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Mamani-Bernabé V (2015). Spirituality and the Pachamama in the Andean Aymara worldview. In Rozzi R, Chapin FS, Callicott JB, Pickett STA, Power ME, Armesto JJ, May Jr RH (eds) Earth stewardship: linking ecology and ethics in theory and practice. Ecology & ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. pp 65–76

    Google Scholar 

  • May R (2015) Andean llamas and earth stewardship. In Rozzi R, Chapin FS, Callicott JB, Pickett STA, Power ME, Armesto JJ, May Jr RH (eds) Earth stewardship: linking ecology and ethics in theory and practice. Ecology and ethics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. pp 77–86

    Google Scholar 

  • May R, May J (2018) Latin American theology of liberation and biocultural conservation. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 393–403

    Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo W (2003a) The darker side of the renaissance: literacy, territoriality and colonization. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo WD (2003b) Historias Globales/diseños globales. Ediciones Akal, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo W (2011) The darker side of western modernity: global futures, decolonial options. Duke University Press, Durham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Montoya-Greenheck F (2018) Biocultural diversity and Ngöbe people in the South Pacific of Costa Rica. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 361–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole A (2018) The UN sustainable development goals and the biocultural heritage Lacuna: where is goal number 18? In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 315–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodney W (1982) How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2004) Implicaciones éticas de narrativas yaganes y mapuches sobre las aves de los bosques templados de Sudamérica austral. Ornitología Neotropical 15:435–444

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2012a) Biocultural ethics: the vital links between the inhabitants, their habits and regional habitats. Environ Ethics 34:27–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2012b) South American environmental philosophy: ancestral Amerindian roots and emergent academic branches. Environ Ethics 34:343–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2013) Biocultural ethics: from biocultural homogenization toward biocultural conservation. In: Rozzi R, Pickett STA, Palmer C, Armesto JJ, Callicott JB (eds) Linking ecology and ethics for a changing world: values, philosophy, and action. Ecology and ethics, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 9–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2015) Implications of the biocultural ethic for earth stewardship. In Rozzi R, Chapin FS III, Callicott JB, Pickett STA, Power ME, Armesto JJ, May Jr. RH (eds) Earth stewardship: linking ecology and ethics in theory and practice. Ecology and ethics, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. pp 113–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozzi R (2018) Biocultural homogenization: a wicked problem in the anthropocene. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 21–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff D (2018) Nature, culture, and natureculture: the role of nonnative species in biocultures. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 207–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang R, Gavin MC (2018) The dynamics of biocultural approaches to conservation in Inner Mongolia, China. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 405–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Toyoda M (2018) Revitalizing local commons: a democratic approach to collective management. In: Rozzi R, May RH Jr, Chapin FS, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology & ethics. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 443–457

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek P, Beamer K (2013) Traditional ecological values, knowledge, and practices in twenty-first century Hawai‘i. In: Linking ecology and ethics for a changing world. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 63–70

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zaffaroni ER (2011) La Pachamama y el humano. In: Acosta A, Martínez E (eds) La Naturaleza con Derechos. De la Filosofía a la Política. Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito, pp 25–135

    Google Scholar 

  • Zanotti L (2018) Biocultural approaches to conservation: water sovereignty in the Kayapó lands. In: Rozzi R, May Jr RH, Chapin FS III, Massardo F, Gavin M, Klaver I, Pauchard A, Nuñez MA, Simberloff D (eds) From biocultural; homogenization to biocultural conservation. Ecology and ethics, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 343–359

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Religion and Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Ricardo Rozzi

  2. Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Ricardo Rozzi

  3. Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad and Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

    Ricardo Rozzi

Authors
  1. Ricardo Rozzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ricardo Rozzi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Religion and Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Ricardo Rozzi

  2. Departamento Ecuménico de Investigaciones, San José, Costa Rica

    Roy H. May Jr.

  3. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    F. Stuart Chapin III

  4. Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Puerto Williams, Chile

    Francisca Massardo

  5. Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Michael C. Gavin

  6. Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

    Irene J. Klaver

  7. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Aníbal Pauchard

  8. Grupo de Ecología de Invasiones, INIBIOMA, CONICET-Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina

    Martin A. Nuñez

  9. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Daniel Simberloff

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Rozzi, R. (2018). Biocultural Conservation and Biocultural Ethics. In: Rozzi, R., et al. From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation. Ecology and Ethics, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99513-7_19

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation