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From Biocultural Homogenization to Biocultural Conservation pp 315–331Cite as

The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Biocultural Heritage Lacuna: Where Is Goal Number 18?

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

Abstract

On 25 September 2015, the Seventieth Session of the General Assembly in the United Nations approved the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Resolution 70/1 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” building upon the vision of the original Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Although intended to account for the shortfalls found in the original MDGs, the SDGs still neglect fundamental qualities of cultural sovereignty that are key for maintaining sustainable practices, values, and lifestyle habits. None of the 17 SDGs emphasize the need to protect local ecological knowledge, cultural heritage—nor its interrelation with biodiversity—as a pathway to sustainability. Further, the factors that threaten local ecological knowledge, traditional lifestyles, and alternative economic practices are absent, provoking indigenous and local peoples to argue that they, and their cultural sovereignty, remain unrecognized by this new “sustainable” development agenda. I argue that focusing on indirect drivers that undermine sustainable management practices must be explicitly addressed to address this conceptual lacuna. Indirect drivers include cultural and ethical facets of the human-nature relationship. Biocultural heritage, reflecting the diverse ways of being between human communities and their local environments, is the rich history of language, heritage, cultural memory, ecological knowledge, and values and should be explicitly be articulated as a key component to any sustainability agenda. Consequently, I propose that to accomplish the SDGs’ mission, it is indispensable to include a sustainable development goal “number 18” that recognizes biocultural heritage.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This book chapter is a revised version of the article, Poole, A. (2018) “Where is Goal Number 18: The Need for Biocultural Heritage in the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” Environmental Values, 27(1):55–80.

  2. 2.

    The closest iteration present in the SDG is 4.7, which states, “…ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others…[the] appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development” (UNGA 2015, p. 17). Compare to the specific targets proposed in Table 3.

  3. 3.

    For a discussion on the complexity of articulating biocultural heritage or traditional ecological knowledge, see Grear 2015.

  4. 4.

    The guiding principles proposed by the IPCCA, which include self-determination, climate justice , food sovereignty, endogenous development, adaptation/mitigation, and Buen Vivir. See the IPCCA Toolkit, available online at http://ipcca.info/toolkit-en-ipcca-methodological-toolkit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, USA

    Alexandria K. Poole

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  1. Alexandria K. Poole
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Correspondence to Alexandria K. Poole .

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

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Poole, A.K. (2018). The UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Biocultural Heritage Lacuna: Where Is Goal Number 18?. 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_20

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