Suchergebnisse

An association between the sacred and places or natural features is known in virtually every part of the world. Some tangible implications of this link, however, have been brought to the forefront only in recent years. Ecological and anthropological studies are demonstrating that not only are sacred places frequently found near major landmarks; these revered patches of land—commonly named "sacred natural sites"—also tend to shelter significant biological and cultural diversity. Therefore, these areas represent crucial conservation hotspots. Here, I use findings from my research in Central Italy to discuss the concept of "sacred natural site" from the perspective of emerging theories of biocultural diversity. In particular, I suggest that a biocultural view of these sites defies typical dichotomizations of Western modernity. The manifestation of the sacred in the world can thus be seen as a foundational moment that embraces and supersedes both of the opposite poles of nature and culture, and is cyclically reenacted through ritual. I conclude that ritual and processual interplays between humans and non-humans are crucial for sustaining the resilience of these sites.

In much of the conservation discourse, the interests of humans and biodiversity are still presented as conflicting, in a relationship where satisfying the needs of one would come to the detriment of the other. This trade-off ideology has been at the basis of the, for instance, fences and fines approaches to conservation, and in the most extreme cases has led to the creation of protected areas by evicting indigenous peoples and local communities, irrespectively of their actual impacts on the local environment. Emerging approaches informed by the notions of community-based conservation and biocultural diversity have advanced alternative (yet age-old) ways of understanding the relationship between people and nature, highlighting the positive role that indigenous peoples and local communities can play in the conservation of biodiversity. Community contributions to conservation are receiving growing recognition also in international legal, institutional and political frameworks. In this presentation, we review the main international instruments providing recognition of community action for conservation – such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas, as well as the IUCN Protected Areas Programme, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures. These instruments, increasingly, though still limitedly, provide at least some recognition and promotion of the fundamental role that Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) play for both the conservation of biodiversity as well as local livelihoods. As economic and corporate pressures increase, legal recognition is especially important for the efforts of local communities and indigenous peoples in conserving their lands and livelihoods. Understanding the existing instruments, how to use them, and how they can be improved is thus key to furthering such efforts and supporting them into the future. 1) biocultural conservation; 2) Indigenous Peoples and Communities Conserved Areas (ICCAs); 3) international legal and institutional review ; peerReviewed

River restoration is a novel paradigm of 'mirescape' (land-and-water-scape) management that developed along with the emergence of aquatic ecology. River restoration can be seen as the application of an ecological perspective to return rivers to nature. However, the river restoration paradigm is also the contemporary iteration of historical phases of mirescape management. We review the long and varied recorded history of the Po River in northern Italy as a case study to illustrate the transformations and common themes of mirescape management. We find, first, that significant changes in mirescape management and river condition only occur in the context of larger social, political, technological and economic transformations. Second, we show how particular cultural understandings, economic interests, technological innovations and political powers have driven particular paradigms of mirescape management. These have tended towards increasing territorial separation of wet and dry. We find, third, that these separations lead not only to increasing economic precariousness for many, but also to increasingly severe disasters. We conclude that river restoration faces social and political challenges to becoming relevant at a mirescape scale, due to its lack of integration with land management, or with current social, political, technological and economic transformations. To act on this conclusion, we suggest philosophically aligned social movements that river restoration could work with to improve impact and uptake.

The coastal eco-region of Kenya, Africa, is known for high levels of endemism on the African continent for plant and other taxa like birds, butterflies, and amphibians. The continued management and survival of these forests has been through different means such as government protection, traditional management of sacred forests, and local community engagement. Forest-adjacent communities have always relied heavily on forest resources for their livelihood. Currently, these forests are facing an increasing pressure from local economic development and surrounding urban expansion. Therefore a pressing challenge is to conciliate sustainable forest management with community needs. In some forests, butterfly farming was introduced as a management strategy to address this challenge. Experience so far shows that butterfly farming has been a viable approach for reshaping the community's relation to the forest, supporting conservation, improving livelihoods , and creating social enterprises. Overall, knowledge about status and trends of biodiversity is the baseline for enhancing conservation strategies. Plant diversity is the crucial factor for the ecosystem productivity and services of the coastal forests. This affects the ecological processes and ecosystem services they provide. There is therefore need for an update on the plant species checklists, their values on the forest and uses by forest reliant communities. Here we investigated the knowledge status on plant species diversity, distribution, and plant conservation status across coastal forests in Kenya. The occurrences of more than 3,000 species were recorded in 16 patches of coastal forests. Due to lack of data and variation in sampling methods, data of species richness are affected by major biases across the national forest parks of Arabuko Sokoke Forest, Shimba Hills and sacred sites. Thus, there is an urgent need to assess and improve the knowledge base of Kenyan coastal forests biodiversity through standardized field sampling. Such information is needed to better guide forest management, conservation policy and human interventions at both local and regional scales. Key words: Plant species diversity, coastal forests, forest management, local community engagement, Kenya ; peerReviewed