The authors wish to thank the Sida-funded SwedBio programme at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society of Future Earth, the Gordon and Betty Moore University through sub-grant GBMF5433 to the Basque Centre for Climate Change (bc3) for supporting the undertaking of the workshop that led to this paper and the EQUIVAL project and the work of UP, PB and NZC, the Future Earth Montreal Global Hub, the Institute of Ecosystem and Sustainability Research at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and the Division of Science Policy and Capacity-Building (SC/PCB) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), CISEN V, the ValuES project from GIZ supported by the BMUB and ecoSERVICES from Future Earth for providing support and financial resources. SJ wishes to thank the Flemish Department of Environment and Energy for funding a research stay under the Flanders–Basque Country Declaration of Intent. i The workshop was supported by the project ‘Nurturing a Shift towards Equitable Valuation of Nature in the Anthropocene’ (EQUIVAL) of the Future Earth-Pegasus programme, Future Earth Montreal Global Hub, the Capacity Building Programme Mentoring Program on Plural Valuation supported by Future Earth’s Natural Assets Knowledge–Action Network, the Institute of Ecosystem and Sustainability Research at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, the Basque Centre for Climate Change, the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) and ecoSERVICES of Future Earth, SwedBio GIZ-BMUB, the ESP Working Group on Integrated Valuation and UNESCO.

/pdf/use-your-power-for-good-plural-valuation-of-nature-the-3d3vkal59r.pdf

Use your power for good: plural valuation of nature – the Oaxaca statement

Stingless honey bees— commonly known as stingless bees— have long provided food and materials to the inhabitants of tropical America. We conducted a literature search to codify available information, including non-peer reviewed ‘grey literature’, on the purported value of stingless bees to indigenous people. Among >400 species of Neotropical stingless bees several are widely used in beekeeping. Varied cultural and economic values are associated with their use, and in some cases husbandry, as a consequence of ongoing contact between people and these social insects. Adapting new species to husbandry is being attempted in many countries. The bees remain culturally important, and beliefs associated with them are significant for different groups, beyond utilization as commodities. We find values in food, craft, religion and medicine, with cultural values ranging from utilitarian to mythological. Values transmitted across generations allow cohesion and communal identity of native organisms associated with any indigenous society. Such cultural values seem in danger of extinction, primarily due to external factors. We provide examples of successful regional strategies in averting cultural and economic loss in natural human heritage, in this case bees that provide honey and other benefits. Preserving stingless bees and the cultural heritage around them provides a good example on how the sustainable use of native species can help in the development of indigenous communities. Bees are important agents for conservation of the environment.

The economic and cultural values of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Meliponini) among ethnic groups of tropical America

Music is recognized as an essential constituent of the diversity of life on Earth and is enshrined in the concept of biocultural diversity. While research shows that song is an untapped library of biocultural memory, ethnobiologists have not yet explored the many areas in which studying songs and music through an ethnobiological lens could bring into focus the multi-dimensional relationships among humans and their biological worlds. The research articles in this special issue illustrate the importance of songs as both a repository of ethnobiological knowledge and as a means to construct, maintain, and mobilize peoples' intimate relations with their local ecologies. Although many traditional music-making systems are under risk of attrition, the extent to which traditional songs continue to be performed and celebrated in many Indigenous and local communities attests not just to the endurance and resilience of their cultures, but also to their deep cultural attachment to their lands as manifested through song. This special issue constitutes one significant step towards the recognition of music both as a timeless prism for looking at human-nature inter-relations, in all their complexities and magnificence, and as an essential form of biocultural heritage, worthy of documentation, conservation, and revitalization.

https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Ethnobiology/volume-39/issue-3/0278-0771-39.3.337/Ethnobiology-through-Song/10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.337.pdf

Ethnobiology through Song

There is growing interest in air quality and air purification, due to current high pollution levels, their effects on human health, and implications for urban economies. Since the improvement of air quality carries important economic value, air-related benefits have been evaluated monetarily from two perspectives: the first relates to air quality improvements, while the second values air purification as an ecosystem function. This research opted for the second perspective, given that the study area (two Colombian municipalities) does not suffer from poor air quality conditions, but stakeholders prioritized this function as highly important to them. Contingent valuation methods were applied in order to identify the population’s probability of willingness to maintain the air purification function. Although individuals (n = 245) attribute a yearly monetary value of USD 1.5 million to air purification, it was found that, despite the high level of social importance that respondents assigned to air purification (mean = 4.7/5), this had no correlation with payment values (rho = 0.0134, p = 0.8350); that is, households do not really recognize the monetary value of all the benefits they receive or the benefits they would lose if the service suffers changes. Hence, it is posed that monetary values do not necessarily reflect the social importance that individuals assign to ecosystem services, and attention is called to the need to integrate social and monetary values into decision-making processes, so as to encompass the complexity of ecosystem services and conciliate conflicting valuation language.

On the Mismatches between the Monetary and Social Values of Air Purification in the Colombian Andean Region: A Case Study

[Extract] Diverse knowledge systems, including science and indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), contribute to understanding pollinators and pollination, their economic, environmental and socio-cultural values and their management globally(well established). Scientific knowledge provides extensive and multidimensional understanding of pollinators and pollination, resulting in detailed understanding of their diversity, functions and steps needed to protect pollinators and the values they produce. In indigenous and local knowledge systems, pollination processes are often understood, celebrated and managed holistically in terms of maintaining values through fostering fertility, fecundity, spirituality and diversity of farms, gardens, and other habitats. The combined use of economic, socio-cultural and holistic valuation of pollinator gains and losses, using multiple knowledge systems, brings different perspectives from different stakeholder groups, providing more information for the management of and decision-making about pollinators and pollination, although key knowledge gaps remain.

Nates-Parra Guiomar

Papers

Biocultural diversity, pollinators and their socio-cultural values