Biodiversity, traditional management systems, and cultural landscapes: examples from the boreal forest of Canada

Abstract

There is a relationship between biodiversity conservation and the cultural practices of indigenous and traditional peoples regarding land and resource use. To conserve biodiversity we need to understand how these cultures interact with landscapes and shape them in ways that contribute to the continued renewal of ecosystems. This article examines the significance of traditional knowledge and management systems and their implications for biodiversity conservation. We start by introducing one key traditional ecological practice, succession management, in particular through the use of fire. We then turn to the example of the indigenous use of boreal forest ecosystems of northern Canada, with a focus on the Anishnaabe (Ojibwa) of north‐western Ontario. Their traditional practices and cultural landscapes provide temporal and spatial biodiversity, and examples of the mechanisms that conserve biodiversity. Learning from traditional systems is important for broadening conservation objectives that can accommodate the sustainable livelihoods of local people. The lens of cultural landscapes provides a mechanism to understand how multiple objectives (timber production, non‐timber forest products, protected areas, tourism) are central to sustainable forest management in landscapes that conserve heritage values and support the livelihood needs of local people. The use of broader and more inclusive definitions of conservation and multiple, integrated objectives can help reconcile local livelihood needs and biodiversity conservation.

Landscapes with Araucaria in South America: evidence for a cultural dimension

“…The prevailing models of biodiversity conservation from the middle of the last century to the beginning of the 21 st century consider that protection alone is effective in protected areas (conservation units) and, in the majority of cases, that care of the environment is only possible with the exclusion of human populations from these areas. Paradoxically, in these models, historical (and/or prehistoric) patterns of human occupation and resource use are not contemplated (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Clement and Junqueira 2010, Torri and Hermann 2010. This point of view has led to erroneous interpretations of ecosystems, because they do not take into account the role of ancestral human communities in the construction of these landscapes.…”

“…In this context, it seems clear that there is a need to understand interactions between cultures and their environment, the influence of human populations on the construction of different landscapes around the world, and how these relationships alter or maintain the biodiversity and resources of interest to them (Davidson-Hunt and Berkes 2003, Toupal 2003, Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Torri and Hermann 2010. This approach is based on the idea that the landscape must acquire a dimension of cultural phenomenon for researchers and conservation managers, where the biophysical space, in this case, Araucaria forests, is a product of the history of human societies and reflects the uses, values, learning and the particular cosmovisions of the societies that have used it (Caparelli et al 2011, Prober et al 2011.…”

Impacts of environmental change on agroecosystems and livelihoods in Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

“…Such knowledge is embedded in social systems and coevolve with ecological processes (Gómez-Baggethun et al, 2013), can improve livelihoods (Chaudhary et al, 2007), sustain ecosystem services (Gadgil et al, 1993), and build resiliency in "social ecological systems" (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt, 2006). This type of traditional knowledge has generally been disseminated orally for generations worldwide and such practices are crucial for sustenance of environmental resources at the local level.…”

Salient Ecological Sensitive Regions of Central Western Ghats, India

“…Unsustainable use of land resources for different purposes, such as tourism, mining, monoculture plantations has severe impacts on land cover leading to the scarcity of natural resources. Large scale land cover transformations have resulted in the enhanced instances of human-animal conflicts, conversion of perennial streams to seasonal streams and affected the livelihood of dependent population with the impaired biological and economic productivities (Berkres and Davidson-Hunt 2006;Moen and Keskitalo 2010).…”