Setting Up Roots: Opportunities for Biocultural Restoration in Recently Inhabited Settings

Abstract

Biocultural approaches to restoration, which recognize the unique ways of understanding of socioecological challenges by Indigenous and local communities, have gained traction in recent decades. Yet, less attention has focused on biocultural opportunities where there is no Indigenous population or traditional knowledge to draw upon. This ethnographic study inductively assesses data gathered from interviews with farm owners on Isabela Island in the Galápagos Islands, where human presence is a function of recent migration. These interviews, corroborated with archival information and participant observation, center on farmer attitudes regarding restoration of Scalesia cordata, a highly endangered plant species, endemic to Isabela. The resulting analysis identified four themes of overlap with the biocultural restoration literature: cultural keystone species, sense of place, informational pathways, and recognition of socio-ecological feedback loops. Findings indicate that Scalesia remains a valued cultural keystone species providing tangible and intangible benefits to local residents, and its survival serves as a metaphor for farmers’ own wellbeing. Thus, even locations where place-based knowledge by a native population is not evident, critical biocultural elements exist that can be integrated into restoration efforts. Farmers also exhibited clear connections between restoration and tourism in Galápagos, paving the way for the application of biocultural theory to the analysis of tourism-supported restoration efforts elsewhere.