Great to see a new Conservation International study, led by Sushma Shrestha (an Indigenous Newar researcher from Nepal), on how Indigenous knowledge protects Earth’s ecosystems. Researchers interviewed 49 Indigenous leaders from six continents about how they steward their land, spanning territory from the Amazon rainforest to East African savannahs and Pacific Islands.
The study pushes back on an all-to-common assumption: that Indigenous lands are ecologically rich simply because they’re isolated or lightly populated. In fact, the health of Indigenous lands, the richness of their biodiversity, and their capacity to store carbon, come directly from active stewardship by the people living there. They’re the product of specific cultural practices, not a mere accident of remoteness.
What cultural practices? Things like avoiding overfishing, maintaining sacred spaces, watching for fires and other threats, and directly resisting extractive industries all contribute to the health of Indigenous territory.
Anything on agricultural biodiversity? Alas, that’s not a framing the paper uses explicitly. However, adaptation strategies that do get mentioned include sowing seeds that can be harvested in a short period to escape flooding, and planting crops in the shadow of trees to cope with rising temperatures. On support needs, there was a specific request for help with the conservation of Indigenous varieties. This is taken up again in the discussion section, which recommends, among other resourcing priorities, the establishment of community seed banks. With the appropriate links to national genebanks, it goes without saying.