Traditional use of natural resources, ecological consciousness and cultural landscape

Abstract

The traditional use of natural resources by indigenous peoples is based on ecological consciousness and the value of the cultural landscape. The attitudes of ecological consciousness determine the success of sustainable social development. Ecological consciousness combines the values, worldview, and personal goals of the subject and directs the subject’s conscious behavior in the natural and cultural environment. In this case, the collective dimension of the environmentally thinking subject becomes the formation of ecological culture. The spatial and material expression of human life and ecological consciousness is the cultural landscape. The purpose of the paper is to relate the features of environmental consciousness and humanistic understanding of the cultural landscape to expand the worldview framework of environmental consciousness, its deeper interdisciplinary scope, and perspectives. Cultural landscape and humanistic geography have the material, symbolic, and theoretical potential to realize and strengthen the connections between the human world and the natural world, forming a progression toward a sustainable ecological consciousness. Obstacles to the transformation of environmental consciousness in the direction of sustainability have not only objective but also subjective components. Therefore, ways to overcome them should be integrative. The author believes that humanistic geography has not lost its relevance and importance as a catalyst for new ideas.