Journal Article

An Urgent Journey: Realizing the Potential of Integrated Nature–Culture Approaches to Create a Sustainable World

Potts, Andrew

2017

Overview

Humans live in a technosphere but remain residents in a biosphere.1 Koi i nā po'ai pili ao ola a pili mo'omeheu e hana pū ma nā pilikia nui o ka honua a kākou e 'alo nei ma o ka hooholomua 'ana i mau hanana pili ao ola a pili mo'omeheu I mea e ko ai nā UN Sustainable Development Goals, ka Paris Agreement, ka Sendai Framework, a me ka New Urban Agenda o Habitat III.2 EMBEDDED IN THE NEW UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS is an urgent message for the conservation community: addressing the planet's looming crises requires better integrated nature-culture approaches and on a global scale.\"8 This phrasing recalls the 1972 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Convention, whose full title is the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage and whose policies have long recognized that sites often include and integrate elements of both natural and cultural significance.Native Hawaiian traditions like Aloha 'Aina (mutual respect for one another and a commitment of service to the natural world) and Kuleana (care for, responsibility for, and stewardship of the lands and seas) helped shift the focus from a perceived division between nature and culture to one that highlighted the nexus between biological and cultural diversity, and how their conservation and sustainability require an understanding of \"modern\" knowledge that includes traditional wisdom.Ultimately, a joint IUCN-ICOMOS curatorial committee selected a variety of emphases, including: * Rights-based approaches, equity, and equitable and effective governance. * Cultural landscapes and biocultural landscapes. * Climate change adaptation and resilience, including learning from ecology, culture, history, and ancestral voices. * Indigenous science, and local and traditional cultural and ecological knowledge (intergenerational transfer of traditional knowledge; using, linking, and reconciling traditional knowledge with western scientific approaches). * The role of local natural resource management systems and local dynamic cultural systems/heritage in the conservation of nature. * Nature-culture linkages in the urban and peri-urban contexts. * Ecosystem goods and services; inclusion of dynamic cultural processes-valuing broader socio/economic/health benefits for local and traditional communities. * World Heritage and protected area processes-recognition of interlinkages of natural and cultural values; partnerships and management. * Integrating social and cultural dimensions into large-scale ocean conservation.

• Publisher: George Wright Society
• Subject: Biosphere / Climate adaptation / Climate change / Cultural heritage / Cultural values / Culture / Earth / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Natural resource management / Natural resources / Nature / Nature conservation / Objectives / Paris Agreement / Sustainability / Sustainable development / Traditions / Values