How Indigenous Wisdom Can Protect The Planet's Wildlife
Indigenous communities protect 80% of the Earth’s biodiversity. Ellie takes a deeper look into how indigenous peoples and their wisdom spanning many centuries can help protect our planet’s wildlife in the present.
Illustration by Katie De Lusignan.
When a child is baptised, the Ifuagos of the Philippines plant four saplings in the rainforest to give blessings to the child while the Native American Potawatomi recognise water and rocks as animate and breathe life into them through their language. The Ba’Aka pigmies of Central Africa employed crop rotation and intercropping to enhance biodiversity long before the term ‘agroecology’ was coined while, in much colder climates, the traditional ecological knowledge of Canada’s Cree enables them to adjust subsistence hunting to ensure the viability of all species. By understanding our interconnectedness and dependence on the natural world, indigenous peoples' worldviews are dominated by a respect for nature that has allowed them to live in harmony with their environment for millennia.
A recent study, led by Professor Stephen Garnett of Charles Darwin University in Australia, showcased a map of the terrestrial lands managed or owned by indigenous peoples across the globe. Researchers determined that, despite managing only 25% of the world’s surface -- and making up only 5% of the world’s population -- indigenous peoples protect 80% of global biodiversity. Unfortunately, this critical relationship between wildlife and indigenous peoples has been at risk for centuries. Throughout history, indigenous populations have been decimated by epidemics introduced through colonisation and continuously forced to abandon their ancestral lands. Large-scale developments today, such as Brazil’s Highway BR-319, threaten the most conserved parts of the Amazon where there is a large concentration of indigenous lands, while other populations have become refugees in the battle for climate justice.
Although it is increasingly recognised that human rights, climate change and the adverse effects on biodiversity are inextricably connected, conservation efforts have a history of undermining and underestimating indigenous wisdom. Enforced regulations and protected areas imposed over indigenous lands have led to conflict, social disadvantage, and displacement. Eli Enns, the co-chair of the Indigenous Circle of Experts, says on the topic, ‘Indigenous people were excluded from conservation programs and even forcibly evicted from the land. They were seen as obstacles to conservation and nature protection, and their knowledge was ignored or dismissed.’ As Garnett’s findings indicated that indigenous lands are largely untouched by development and essentially natural, a conclusion can be drawn that indigenous people are vital global actors in protected area management. This demonstrates the importance of governments and conservation organisations partnering with indigenous peoples to protect the environment and the wildlife that it sustains.
Successful examples of partnerships around the world:
Indigenous managed lands are vital for the conservation of Australia’s unique biodiversity. In Western Australia’s remote Kimberly, 93% of area falls within Native Title lands, including Indigenous Protected Areas. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy worked in collaboration with the Ngarinyin people of Wilinggin to identify 36 previously unrecorded species that will help to understand and conserve the biodiversity of this untouched area of Australia. Collaborative development and implementation of early dry seasons burning programs – ‘right-way fire’ – prevent forest fires that could devastate threatened and endemic species that find refuge there.
In Canada, the collaboration among indigenous and non-indigenous governments has enabled the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into monitoring, research, and management initiatives to benefit ecosystems. Moose are the primary source of protein for indigenous communities in Canada and are increasingly at risk due to climate change, increasing anthropogenic activity and over harvest. Following a 70% moose population decline between 2001-2011, the government of British Columbia and Gitanyow Wilp indigenous peoples established a framework for shared decision making that re-established healthy moose populations by managing moose winter habitat. The areas of protection were informed by indigenous knowledge of where moose are typically found during winter.
The Kapayó people, in the south-eastern Amazon region of Brazil, legally control an area of around 26 million acres – equal to 416 million tennis courts. The area is rich with biodiversity and remains an area of lush forests, rivers and savannas due to the Kayapó’s deep respect for the nature of these landscapes. International NGO, Conservation International, has been working with the Kapayó since 1992, helping them to establish small sustainable businesses and generate income that allows them to remain on their ancestral lands in a capitalist world. Observing the area using Google Maps, the Kapayó territory appears as a massive green island among a sea of deforestation.
Nurturing collaborative partnerships:
Recent research produced by Stephen Garnett’s team and global success stories highlight the incredible potential for further collaborations between indigenous peoples, governments, and NGOs. By incorporating indigenous wisdom and value systems into conservation efforts, natural ecosystems and future generations will have a conceivable chance to flourish. For successful partnerships to be established, governments must actively choose to favour human rights over profit and work to repair the centuries of injustice indigenous communities have faced.
Naomi Klein said it best when she wrote, ‘There can be no truth unless we admit to the 'why' behind centuries of abuse and land theft. And there can be no reconciliation when the crime is still in progress. Only when we have the courage to tell the truth about our old stories will the new stories arrive to guide us. Stories that recognize that the natural world and all its inhabitants have limits. Stories that teach us how to care for each other and regenerate life within those limits.’
Ellie Humphrys
Ellie is a graduate of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science at UWE. After completing her degree, she travelled to the current-swept Komodo National Park where she became the dive centre's Social Media Manager and completed her Divemaster - an awe-inspiring experience filled with giant dancing manta rays and iridescent cuttlefish. Returning home, Ellie decided to continue her education by starting an MSc in Sustainability and Behaviour Change and finds passion in learning how to effectively communicate environmental issues to various audiences.