Conservation through Biocultural Heritage—Examples from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

In this paper, we review the potential of biocultural heritage in biodiversity protection and agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa. We begin by defining the concept of biocultural heritage into four interlinked elements that are revealed through integrated landscape analysis. This concerns the transdisciplinary methods whereby biocultural heritage must be explored, and here we emphasise that reconstructing landscape histories and documenting local heritage values needs to be an integral part of the process. Ecosystem memories relate to the structuring of landscape heterogeneity through such activities as agroforestry and fire management. The positive linkages between living practices, biodiversity and soil nutrients examined here are demonstrative of the concept of ecosystem memories. Landscape memories refer to built or enhanced landscapes linked to specific land-use systems and property rights. Place memories signify practices of protection or use related to a specific place. Customary protection of burial sites and/or abandoned settlements, for example, is a common occurrence across Africa with beneficial outcomes for biodiversity and forest protection. Finally, we discuss stewardship and change. Building on local traditions, inclusivity and equity are essential to promoting the continuation and innovation of practices crucial for local sustainability and biodiversity protection, and also offer new avenues for collaboration in landscape management and conservation.

Integrating stakeholders’ perspectives and spatial modelling to develop scenarios of future land use and land cover change in northern Tanzania

“…The formation of the geopark, which is managed by the NCAA and UNESCO, is a step toward addressing these principles as its existence promotes the sustainable development of communities as well as conserving natural resources across the entire landscape. Community designed and managed approaches to cultural heritage protection, especially the formulation of biocultural protocols, could have a significant impact on blending these dual goals [20,121].…”

Emerging Paradigms for Biodiversity and Protected Areas

“…Indigenous-led Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) express traditional values, responsibilities and Indigenous laws and worldviews, through land stewardship that encompasses the understanding of humans and non-humans as one community whose health is intertwined. In a similar vein, Ekblom et al [45] show that the cultural connection to landscapes for people in Sub-Saharan Africa through ecosystem memories, landscape memories, and place memories is a powerful conservation dimension. Biocultural heritage connects identity, social cohesion, and practice with social and political negotiation and is thus, they argue, foundational to promoting stewardship.…”

“…Small protected areas are very numerous and may provide significant habitat in the matrix, stepping stones for dispersal, and protect localized, rare ecosystems but such spatially scaled research is only now emerging. Ekblom et al [45] show that there are many small areas in Sub-Saharan Africa protected as sacred sites that also provide habitat for important species diversity. Local conservation is often focused on small natural areas near where people live and work in particular near where conservationists work (Baldwin & Leonard 2015) [57].…”

Modeling of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Yield and Control Insecticide Exposure in a Semi-Arid Region

“…Thus, farmers are at risk of starvation [39]. Hence, the goal of an alternative farming system is to help increase the availability [40][41][42], affordability [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] of crops and meet their nutritional needs [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. In Angola, V. unguiculata belongs to the important staple crop.…”