A critical reflection of the development of biocultural heritage conservation and community based projects: a case study of Goonhilly Downs.
Jake Riding
amongst other things, “New directions in natural heritage conservation acknowledge conflicting relationships between societies and their environments, and seek to respond to impending global crises due to overconsumption of resources, climate change, and biodiversity extinction.” Mallarach (2021) asserts that methodological changes include, “...advancing more holistic, natural-cultural approaches; recognising the role of governance in successful management strategies; integrating scientific and traditional knowledge in valuation processes and promoting rights-based approaches.” This new understanding presents an alternative perspective and approach to Western models of conservation that separate people and nature. For instance, unlike the historical western concepts of conservation that refer to ‘ecosystem services’ and ‘nature-based solutions’, indigenous or local people and communities see their relationship with nature as reciprocal rather than linear. Biocultural heritage territories arise from indigenous and community traditions of landscape management (Krystyna 2020). Human life depends on biodiversity, however biodiversity is being lost on our planet at an unprecedented rate. In 2021 world leaders gathered to agree new post-2020 targets to address biodiversity loss in the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Consequently, the argument of supporting biocultural heritage conservation is ever more pressing due to climate change and highlighting the advantages of it are very important. The IIED (2020) recognises many important factors for biocultural heritage conservation, strengthening interconnections between cultural and natural heritage in policy and practice, fostering, “...integrated, cross-sectoral, and collaborative work between different government departments, institutions, and actors.” It defines, implements and monitors combined policies and practices for sustainable development and promotes interdisciplinary research to further understand the nature-culture dynamics, showing interlinkages.
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