Reciprocal Contributions between People and Nature: A Conceptual Intervention

Abstract

Throughout human history, Indigenous and local communities have stewarded nature. In the present article, we revisit the ancestral principle of reciprocity between people and nature and consider it as a conceptual intervention to the current notion of ecosystem services commonly used to inform sustainability transformation. We propose the concept of reciprocal contributions to encompass actions, interactions, and experiences between people and other components of nature that result in positive contributions and feedback loops that accrue to both, directly or indirectly, across different dimensions and levels. We identify reciprocal contributions and showcase examples that denote the importance of reciprocity for our ecological legacy and its relevance for biocultural continuity. We suggest that the concept of reciprocal contribution can support transformation pathways by resituating people as active components of nature and restructuring institutions so that ethical principles and practices from Indigenous and local communities can redirect policy approaches and interventions worldwide.

Disrupting and diversifying the values, voices and governance principles that shape biodiversity science and management

“…Yet, many of these efforts are still predicated largely on 'stock and flow' models and economic objectives. For example, the ecosystem services and natural capital approaches often fail to account for reciprocal interactions among various components of ecosystems and contrasting objectives among diverse communities of people, and thereby neglect issues of equity and justice among beneficiaries of said 'services' [67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74]. Science, management, and conservation practices are often motivated by a constrained set of Western values; these then continue to perpetuate the process of colonization and undermine the responsibilities of Indigenous peoples to manage their relationship with the land and sea in accordance with their ancestral governance principles.…”

Cuidando la Patagonia Azul: Prácticas y estrategias de los pueblos originarios para curar las zonas marinas del sur de Chile

“…Los daños, la vida en ruina o más bien la enfermedad del mar se cura con las decisiones y prácticas de quienes habitan en los lugares y padecen la devastación. Son acciones que directamente o indirectamente están contribuyendo a la regeneración de la naturaleza (Ojeda et al, 2022) y que se encuentran relacionados con los saberes ancestrales de los territorios (Rozzi et al, 2023).…”

“…Una acción que responde a esta realidad es la de “repoblar el mar” con la propia diversidad de las especies de la zona, para retornarle los frutos que ha entregado. Una relación de reciprocidad que evoca una serie de prácticas y valores de cuidado de la naturaleza que han sostenido la sobrevivencia de humanos y otros‐que‐humanos a lo largo del tiempo (Ojeda et al., 2022).…”

“…Una acción que responde a esta realidad es la de "repoblar el mar" con la propia diversidad de las especies de la zona, para retornarle los frutos que ha entregado. Una relación de reciprocidad que evoca una serie de prácticas y valores de cuidado de la naturaleza que han sostenido la sobrevivencia de humanos y otros-que-humanos a lo largo del tiempo(Ojeda et al, 2022).Las técnicas de marisqueo también expresan las relaciones de cuidado que se forjan entre estas comunidades y el mar. El palde, una especie de cuchillo de madera, fue la herramienta fabricada por las comunidades locales para mariscar.…”

TheCBDPost‐2020 biodiversity framework: People's place within the rest of nature

“…There is a growing interest in encouraging and enabling people to manage biodiversity in ways that are appropriate to retaining ecosystem function. Effective ecosystem function will allow for the delivery of ecosystem services/nature's contributions to people, in a range of settings from protected areas to urban environments (see reciprocity, Ojeda et al, 2022). This thinking inevitably requires a change from efforts to save threatened species from extinction, to efforts seeking to ensure ecosystem resilience.…”