Reappraising the Concept of Biocultural Diversity: a Perspective from South Africa

Cocks, Michelle; Wiersum, Freerk

doi:10.1007/s10745-014-9681-5

Cited by 53 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Certainly, BCD is critical for indigenous communities that live in forests and natural areas, both in terms of their material as well as their cultural needs (Posey 1999). However, while it is clear that many indigenous peoples have developed sustainable ways of dealing with nature, the idea that they have always acted as nature conservationists, has been disputed (Hames 2007;Cocks and Wiersum 2014). This is because by no means are all cultural practices beneficial for nature, with for instance the cultural uses of ivory and rhino horn constituting the main reason for the endangered status of these species.…”

Section: Introduction Biocultural Diversity: Origins and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies in rural areas highlight how local people have developed new constellations of biodiversity in the form of agrobiodiversity (Wood and Lenné 1997;Kareiva et al 2007;Pilgrim and Pretty 2010). Cocks and Wiersum (2014) documented the endurance of traditional biocultural values and practices in South Africa's (peri-)urban areas. Its relevance goes beyond poor households, with wealthy households in South Africa also extensively using wild plants for cultural and material reasons (Cocks et al 2008).…”

Section: Introduction Biocultural Diversity: Origins and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is largely in line with our research as we found that, especially at the city level, cultural diversity is predominantly interpreted as a service. This implies a functional view of human needs and values, which fundamentally ignores the basic categories of human values as distinguished by Cocks and Wiersum (2014); these are i) the value of nature with respect to spiritual and emotional wellbeing and health, ii) the value of nature in providing a sense of identity and place, and iii) the value of nature in providing cultural artefacts and livelihood products. These three categories of human values, however, were certainly recognized at the site level where, rather than biodiversity values, cultural values are considered as the basic foundation of BCD.…”

Section: Manifestations Of Biocultural Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy interpretations and manifestation of biocultural diversity in urbanized Europe: conservation of lived biodiversity

et al. 2015

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Biocultural diversity, which refers to the inextricable link between biodiversity and cultural diversity, has been predominantly associated with the traditional ways in which indigenous people in tropical countries interact with the natural environment. But it does not have to be restricted to these circumstances. Biocultural diversity may also be regarded as an interesting concept for understanding how people in industrialized and globalized societies deal with nature. This paper explores biocultural diversity in 20 European cities by considering (i) how biocultural diversity is interpreted in urban planning and governance, and (ii) what actual manifestations of biocultural diversity are present in these cities. Despite the fact that the concept of biocultural diversity was hardly recognized by city authorities, interviewees gave many examples of how biodiversity and cultural diversity are taken into account in (in) formal city policies. The research revealed two main manifestations of biocultural diversity within urban Europe: biocultural diversity grounded in ecological features, and cultural values as a basic foundation for biocultural diversity. Consequently, urban biocultural diversity was found to have two spatial levels: the city level and the site level. The former is the domain of governmental policy makers who discuss biocultural diversity in 'green space networks' in a rather static way. The latter is the domain where citizens participate in decisionmaking and the management of green spaces; it is here that cultural dynamics are most acknowledged.

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Section: Introduction Biocultural Diversity: Origins and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction Biocultural Diversity: Origins and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Manifestations Of Biocultural Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policy interpretations and manifestation of biocultural diversity in urbanized Europe: conservation of lived biodiversity

et al. 2015

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“…This heritage and conservation focus has been criticized for failing to recognize that culture is dynamic (Cocks 2006). Studies in both tropical countries (Cocks et al 2011; Cocks and Wiersum 2014) and Europe (Elands and Van Koppen 2012; Elands et al 2015) have shown that the dynamics of biocultural diversity not only involve loss of historically created biocultural diversity due to modernization, but also involve the adjustment of cultural interactions with biodiversity in response to changing socioeconomic conditions and human creativity (see also Turnhout et al 2013). Buizer et al (2016) argue that the concept of biocultural diversity should not be interpreted as a definitive concept that is prescriptive of what to see (e.g., endangered biocultural diversity amongst indigenous and traditional societies), but rather as a sensitizing and reflexive concept suggesting directions along which to look in dealing with the diversity and dynamics in human-nature interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Interest in Wild Forest Products in Europe as an Expression of Biocultural Dynamics

Wiersum

2017

Hum Ecol

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In Europe, interest in wild forest products is increasing. Such products may be interpreted in a biological sense as deriving from autonomously growing forest species or in a biocultural sense as reflecting dynamics in human living with biodiversity through re-wilding of earlier domesticated species. In this article I elaborate the idea that the new interests reflect biocultural dynamics. First, I identify these dynamics as involving both domestication and re-wilding and characterize these processes as involving biological, environmental, and cultural dimensions. Next, I present a comparative review of two approaches to re-wilding forest production in the Netherlands: meat production from new types of natural grazing systems, and food production from plants re-introduced to the wild. The first approach is based on the stimulation of naturally occurring ecological processes and the second on the stimulation of new forms of experiencing bio-cultural heritage. The examples demonstrate that the new interests in wild forest products involve both a return to earlier stages of domestication in an ecological sense and a new phase of acculturation to evolving socio-cultural conditions.

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“…Understanding the biocultural relationships through which cultural values shape tropical forest diversity is now increasingly recognized as important for the conservation of both biodiversity and (tangible and intangible) cultural heritage (Gavin et al 2015). This means investigating the full range of cultural values, from, for example, more utilitarian (Ickowitz et al 2014) to more symbolic (Dold andCocks 2012, Cocks andWiersum 2014). In trying to understand this diversity of cultural valuation, we attempt to overcome problems raised by Kirchhoff (2012) and Turnhout et al (2013) associated with conflating economic and cultural valuation by combining methods from each of the "three cultures" of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/ Despite deforestation now being a major threat, much of northwestern (hereafter, NW) Liberia's tropical forest biodiversity appears to have been shaped by long-term anthropogenic influences-indigenous peoples have historically been "builders of forests" (Fairhead and Leach 1996, 1998, Kandeh and Richards 1996-through biocultural relations with different species entailing forms of cultural valuation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

Fraser¹,

Diabaté²,

Narmah³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The cultural valuation of biodiversity has taken on renewed importance over the last two decades as the ecosystem services framework has become widely adopted. Conservation initiatives increasingly use ecosystem service frameworks to render tropical forest landscapes and their peoples legible to market-oriented initiatives such as REDD+ and biodiversity offsetting schemes. Ecosystem service approaches have been widely criticized by scholars in the social sciences and humanities for their narrow focus on a small number of easily quantifiable and marketable services and a reductionist and sometimes simplistic approach to culture. We address the need to combine methods from each of the "three cultures" of natural science, quantitative social science, and qualitative social science/humanities in conceptualizing the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation. We combine qualitative data with forest inventories and a quantitative index of cultural value to evaluate the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in Upper Guinea forest in Liberia, West Africa. Our study focuses on "sacred agroforests," spaces that are associated with Mande macro-language speaking groups such as the Loma. We demonstrate that sacred agroforests are associated with different cultural values compared with secondary forests. Although biodiversity and biomass are similar, sacred agroforests exhibit a different species composition, especially of culturally salient species, increasing overall landscape agro-biodiversity. Sacred agroforests are also shaped and conserved by local cultural institutions revolving around ancestor worship, ritual, and the metaphysical conceptual category "salɛ." We conclude that to understand the relationship between cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation, interpretivist approaches such as phenomenology should be employed alongside positivist ecosystem service frameworks.

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Reappraising the Concept of Biocultural Diversity: a Perspective from South Africa

Cited by 53 publications

References 40 publications

Policy interpretations and manifestation of biocultural diversity in urbanized Europe: conservation of lived biodiversity

Policy interpretations and manifestation of biocultural diversity in urbanized Europe: conservation of lived biodiversity

New Interest in Wild Forest Products in Europe as an Expression of Biocultural Dynamics

Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa

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