The Universal Precautionary Principle: New Pillars and Pathways for Environmental, Sociocultural, and Economic Resilience

Abstract

Global environmental degradation is linked to a worldwide erosion of ethnic identity and cultural diversity, as well as market disruption. Cultures rely heavily on the local environment around them, and local communities play a key role in conserving natural resources. People’s identity, connection with land, and the adaptation of Indigenous and local knowledge are prerequisites for resilience. Though the Environmental Precautionary Principle (EPP) aims to tackle environmental degradation by privileging the environment in the face of uncertainty, it is not sufficient on its own; it does not take into account the intimate connection between nature and local culture, nor does it prioritize community or cultural wellbeing. We suggest expanding this concept into a multi-faceted Universal Precautionary Principle (UPP), which recognizes people’s connection to the land, and elevates community, cultural, and economic wellbeing as equally important values alongside environmental concerns. Here, we coin the Universal Precautionary Principle, outline its four core pillars—systems, governance, diversity, and resilience—and introduce its three subsets: Environmental Precautionary Principle, Sociocultural Precautionary Principle, and Economic Precautionary Principle. We discuss potential outcomes of its application, and offer operational guidelines to implement the Universal Precautionary Principle in practice, before concluding that it is a crucial tool to build environmental, sociocultural, and economic resilience. In essence, reciprocity is the keystone for continuance—if the environment is healthy, people are more likely to be healthy. Equally, if people are healthy, the environment is more likely to be healthy; for both people and the environment to be healthy, their culture and economy must be healthy.

Effects of customary egg harvest regimes on hatching success of a culturally important waterfowl species

“…Such regular engagement with the environment can improve sustainability within society by promoting collective action towards ecosystem conservation (Akins et al, 2019;Amel et al, 2017;Johannes, 2002). In contrast, environmental laws that aim to protect wildlife by prohibiting customary harvests can exacerbate threats by separating resource users from their environment, which can erode long-term ecological knowledge, community kinship, management practices and skills needed to adapt to environmental change and live sustainably Lyver & Tylianakis, 2017;Tyrrell, 2008).…”

“…Thus, in addition to recognizing IPLC rights 'to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources ' (United Nations General Assembly, 2007), supporting IPLC in place-based resource management requires generating and interpreting data within appropriate cultural contexts that recognize their values (Akins et al, 2019;Freitas et al, 2020;Lyver, Ruru, et al, 2019).…”

“…In western and colonial countries where IPLC have limited authority in resource management, data interpretation and decision‐making tend to be biased towards majority cultures and conservation strategies that do not value customary harvests of wildlife (Hunn et al., 2003; Lyver, Ruru, et al., 2019; Tyrrell, 2008; Wright et al., 1995). Thus, in addition to recognizing IPLC rights ‘ to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources ’ (United Nations General Assembly, 2007), supporting IPLC in place‐based resource management requires generating and interpreting data within appropriate cultural contexts that recognize their values (Akins et al., 2019; Freitas et al., 2020; Lyver, Ruru, et al., 2019).…”

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

“…Transfer focuses on how knowledge is distributed within the knowledge system, among the various members and processes. Other terms used in the scholarly literature to reflect this process include “dissemination,” “distribution,” “sharing,” “transmission,” “exchange,” and “diffusion.” As discussed above, transfer of knowledge within a system can occur within or between different generations of knowledge holders, that is, “traditional knowledge” in the simplest and most general sense of the words (Bender et al 2014, Akins et al 2018, Chanteloup et al 2018). Perceived this way, it is natural to recognize that “traditional knowledge” would by definition be a fundamental component of any Indigenous, Local, or Science knowledge system.…”

Unleashing the Indirect Influence of FDI in Environmental Degradation via Financial Development and Economic Growth. New Evidence from Asian Countries

“…In other words, the in uence of a variety of factors such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) [7][8][9], Financial Development (FD) [10,11], EG [12,13], energy consumption [14,15], global warming ( [16]), climate change [17,18] and ITC [19] etc. Considering the adverse effect of ED, countries across the globe are in search of effective strategies, policies, and programs to respond to it [18,20,21]. Many developed economies have initiated effective programs to avoid the negative outcomes of ED but emerging economies have still lack policies for such issues [22,23].…”