Biocultural vulnerability exposes threats of culturally important species

• Autores: Reyes García, Victoria; Cámara Leret, Rodrigo; Halpern, Benjamin S.; O'Hara, Casey; Renard, Delphine; Zafra Calvo, Noelia; Díaz, Sandra Myrna
• Año de publicación: 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: BIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY; CONSERVATION PLANNING; CULTURAL KEYSTONE SPECIES; INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

There are growing calls for conservation frameworks that, rather than breaking the relations between people and other parts of nature, capture place-based relationships that have supported social–ecological systems over the long term. Biocultural approaches propose actions based on biological conservation priorities and cultural values aligned with local priorities, but mechanisms that allow their global uptake are missing. We propose a framework to globally assess the biocultural status of specific components of nature that matter to people and apply it to culturally important species (CIS). Drawing on a literature review and a survey, we identified 385 wild species, mostly plants, which are culturally important. CIS predominate among Indigenous peoples (57%) and ethnic groups (21%). CIS have a larger proportion of Data-Deficient species (41%) than the full set of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) species (12%), underscoring the disregard of cultural considerations in biological research. Combining information on CIS biological conservation status (IUCN threatened status) and cultural status (language vitality), we found that more CIS are culturally Vulnerable or Endangered than they are biologically and that there is a higher share of bioculturally Endangered or Vulnerable CIS than of either biologically or culturally Endangered CIS measured separately. Bioculturally Endangered or Vulnerable CIS are particularly predominant among Indigenous peoples, arguably because of the high levels of cultural loss among them. The deliberate connection between biological and cultural values, as developed in our “biocultural status” metric, provides an actionable way to guide decisions and operationalize global actions oriented to enhance place-based practices with demonstrated long-term sustainability.
Fil: Reyes García, Victoria. Institució Catalana de Recerca I Estudis Avançats; España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d’Antropologia Social i Cultural; España. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals; España
Fil: Cámara Leret, Rodrigo. Universitat Zurich; Suiza
Fil: Halpern, Benjamin S.. University of California. Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; Estados Unidos. University of California. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis; Estados Unidos
Fil: O'Hara, Casey. University of California. Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; Estados Unidos
Fil: Renard, Delphine. Université Montpellier II; Francia
Fil: Zafra Calvo, Noelia. Basque Centre for Climate Change. Scientific Campus of the University of the Basque Country; España
Fil: Díaz, Sandra Myrna. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina