A deeper meaning of sustainability: Insights from indigenous knowledge

Abstract

This article argues that different cultures and their respective knowledge systems should partake to the sustainability debate. The focus is on insights that indigenous knowledge may provide, analyzing the principles which oversee indigenous relationship with nature, like reciprocity and caretaking. These principles move from a profound sense of unity and interconnectedness and put emphasis on the importance of giving back to nature. They offer an alternative perspective on sustainability that challenges the Western view. Such a view is still focused on maintaining the possibility of exploitation and embedded in a sense of separation from nature. The article discusses the need of creating a laboratory for sustainability, that is, a genuinely pluralist space in which multiple cultural expertise can interact and mutually enrich, yet maintaining their distinction and integrity. The main motivation of such an endevor should be to redefine the notion of sustainability in a more refined and thoughtful way: this is something vital for present and future generations.

Confronting inequality beyond sustainable development: The case for eco‐human rights and differentiation

“…At the same time, the same concept could be used in more imaginative ways, such as by linking it with indigenous principles. 76 Another option is the setting up of an ombudsperson to represent interests that cannot represent themselves, such as in the case of future generations. This has, for instance, been given the shape of a Future Generations Commissioner in Wales.…”

Regulating humanity's impact on the earth: The promise of transnational environmental law

“…Connectedly, dominant economic norms should be questioned particularly those that speak to the commodification of nature, and alternative conceptualizations of the human–environment relationship, such as those of Indigenous peoples, considered (Mazzochhi, 2020). The roots of the dominant view of the natural environment as an economic resource extend back to the industrial revolution and before, as nature was viewed as a commodifiable and regenerative product upon which economic prosperity could be built, a notion that was universalized by colonialism as the colonizer expropriated natural resources from the colonized (Anghie, 1996; Tzouvala, 2020).…”

Animism in the Anthropocene

“…Indeed, indigenous sustainability methods for biodiversity preservation have been introduced and discussed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as well as Assessment Reports and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (see Mazzochi, 2020: 3). Many scholars have also been seeking to include Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in their academic research and promote indigenous sustainable practices such as traditional burning techniques, rotation of hunting areas, shifting cultivation and terrace farming (see, for instance, Cajete, 2000;Haila, 2000;Mazzochi, 2020;McGregor, 2004;Pierotti and Wildcat, 2000;Salmon, 2000;Sundberg, 2014).…”