Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) often use natural resources as both a reason and mechanism for environmental management, yet a number of environmental, social, and economic drivers disrupt this relationship. Here, we argue that these drivers can also trigger a set of feedback mechanisms that further diminish the efficacy of local management. We call this process biocultural hysteresis. These feedbacks, which include knowledge loss and a breakdown of social hierarchies, prevent IPLC from adapting their management to change. Biocultural hysteresis worsens as IPLC spend an increasing amount of time outside their social-ecological context. Therefore, we argue for adaptive policies and processes that favour protecting and enabling IPLC engagement with their environment. Biocultural Approaches to Environmental ManagementGlobal environmental transformations have degraded and homogenized both biological and human cultural diversity [1][2][3]; in particular that of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) -'which are, typically, ethnic groups who are descended from and identify with the original inhabitants of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently' [4]. Worse still, this cultural extinction process further threatens biodiversity, and limits the scope for its management. The traditional territories of IPLC are often characterized by high biological diversity [5,6], and therefore indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) systems are heavily informed by interactions with nature. Such experiences are frequently associated with ecologically responsible behaviour [7-9] and lead to positive environmental discovery and social outcomes [10][11][12]. The benefits emerging from IPLC engaging with their environments, combined with threats to cultures and ecosystems, have underpinned calls for greater consideration of biocultural approaches in environmental management [2,13,14]. Biocultural approaches focus on sustaining both the cultural and biophysical components of IPLC social-ecological systems [13,15]. Yet, there are situations in which the effectiveness of biocultural approaches have been questioned [16], and where IPLC interactions with biodiversity have led to negative environmental outcomes [17]. Therefore, understanding when and why biocultural approaches succeed or fail remains a critical goal for environmental management.A key consideration for understanding the success or failure of biocultural approaches to environmental management is the dynamic nature of ILK and culture [2,18]. IPLC rely heavily on use of their environments to gauge, interpret, and respond to internal and external feedbacks [19], transmit knowledge, and adapt it to new and changing social, technological, environmental, and political contexts [20,21]. Because diverse worldviews and knowledge sets contribute to adaptive resilience [22], the effectiveness of biocultural approaches is degraded by any forces that undermine these knowledge generation and adaptation processes [1...

ABSTRACT. Indigenous peoples and local communities interact with approximately two-thirds of the world's land area through their worldviews and customary tenure regimes and offer significant knowledge contributions and lessons about sustainability. We worked with Tuawhenua Māori to document domains, concepts, and mechanisms within the worldview representation in a way that could guide environmental conservation in New Zealand. We then applied the framework to a cultural keystone species for Tuawhenua, the kererū ([New Zealand pigeon [(Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae]) to elucidate this human-environment relationship. Whakapapa (genealogy), whenua (land), and tangata (people) were interconnected domains that formed the conceptual basis of our framework. Within these domains, the concepts of mauri (life essence), mana (authority), and ihi (vitality) guided the expression of the community's relationship with the environment. Cultural expressions related to the kererū demonstrated the cultural significance of the bird to Tuawhenua that went well beyond the ecological and intrinsic value of the species. The Tuawhenua worldview representation also emphasized the humannature relationship and the role that metaphor plays in expressing this relationship. Indigenous peoples and local community worldviews are important for establishing priorities, reconciling the human relationship with the environment, and facilitating the coproduction of knowledge in response to pressing local and global environmental conservation issues.

Indigenous peoples' roles in conservation are important because they offer alternate perspectives and knowledge centred on the quality of the human-environment relationship. Here, we present examples of Māori cultural constructs, mechanisms, legislative warrants and customary (traditional and contemporary) interventions fundamental to the development and delivery of biocultural approaches within NZ's future conservation system. Biocultural approaches emphasise greater decision-making for the environment at the local institutional level, and contribute towards rebuilding a 'tuakana-teina' relationship (a reciprocal learning relationship and responsibility shared between older and younger persons) between societies and their environments. We further posit that the matching of social scales with ecological scales within local management is necessary for the effective implementation of biocultural approaches. Failure to do so could undermine motivation, action, energies and confidence of local communities.

The underlying ethos of 'nature's benefits' contributing to human wellbeing provides a common platform for understanding the function and value of biodiversity for stakeholders. Diverse societal worldviews however create differences in the way cultures relate to and understand the environment. The objective of this study was to identify community-based indicators and metrics used by Māori in New Zealand to monitor forest health and community wellbeing. Eighty semi-directed interviews were conducted with 55 forest users within the Tuawhenua tribal group to identify forest health indicators and associated gradient of metrics to assess each indicator. Indicators were grouped within nine culturally-relevant themes: (1) food procurement (mahinga kai), (2) natural productivity (hua o te whenua), (3) nature of water (āhua o te wai), (4) nature of the land (āhua o te whenua), (5) nature of the forest (āhua o te ngahere), (6) perpetual occupation of land and place (ahikaaroa), (7) spiritual dimension (taha wairua), (8) physical health (taha kikokiko), and (9) mental health (taha hinengaro). Within these themes, indicators and associated metrics were aligned within two monitoring approaches: field survey and interviewbased. Community members (n = 35 individuals) were asked to prioritise field survey indicators using a seven point Likert Scale of importance. A second survey was also conducted with Tuawhenua elders (n = 43 individuals) to determine changes in the frequency of forest use by the community. A decline in the proportion of the community Communicated by Eckehard Brockerhoff, Hervé Jactel and Ian Thompson. This is part of the special issue on 'Forest biodiversity and ecosystem services'.

Cross-cultural environmental monitoring systems inform on a broad suite of indicators relevant to both scientific and local communities. In this study, we used forest-plot-based survey measures developed by western scientists and a set of community-based survey indicators developed by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand (NZ), to compare the current state of two ecologically congruent forests (Whirinaki and Ruatāhuna), as they related to a historic Ruatāhuna forest state (Baseline; 1955-1975) in NZ. Both the plot-based and community-based field surveys indicated that the Whirinaki forest was in a better state than the Ruatāhuna forest. This was supported by a stronger mauri (concept of life essence) rating assigned by Māori elders to the Whirinaki forest compared with the Ruatāhuna forests. However, both the Ruatāhuna and Whirinaki forests were deemed to be in a significantly poorer state than the Baseline forest. A cross-cultural monitoring system provides understanding of forest state that both managers and communities can use for decision-making. Historical baselines of forest state can provide ecological targets for restoration initiatives and also identify where on the restoration continuum current forest indicators lie. The alignment of plot-based measures with community-based indicators offers possibilities for future-proofing a cross-cultural monitoring system and buffering it from intergenerational shifts in ecological baselines. The opportunity for indigenous peoples and local communities to apply their traditional ways of knowing, and interpret and act on information they understand are crucial components of cross-cultural environmental management regimes.