Biocultural Diversity Conservation: Communities at the Cutting Edge

Volume 7, Issue 1, Summer 2018 in the northern hemisphere

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The heart of biocultural diversity lies in communities: humans coming into connection with each other, with other species, and with the lands and waters they call home. Here, at the community level, is where the overlaps between nature and culture make themselves most apparent. Here too is where actions to safeguard the biocultural tapestry of life have the most immediate impact.

In this issue of Langscape Magazine, authors give voice to communities around the world — Thailand to Colombia, South Africa to Sweden, the Caribbean to the Caucasus — and to the inspiring work they are doing to conserve biocultural diversity. What does it mean for a community to “conserve” biocultural diversity? Ultimately, people don’t conserve particular places or cultural practices — they conserve values that they associate with those places and practices. One can think of conservation as a range of culturally specific techniques people use to ensure the continuity of values that are important to them. Read articles below.