Biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation
Summary (4 min read)
Introduction
- Pollinators are integral to a good quality of life for people globally, contributing to sustainable livelihoods, maintenance of ecosystem health and function, food production, cultural, spiritual and social values 1 .
- Inclusive policy for their conservation requires innovative, multiscale assessments that include evidence from science and other knowledge systems 2 .
- Biocultural approaches to conservation, which explicitly build on local cultural perspectives and recognize feedbacks between ecosystems and quality of life, have emerged as key to the necessary inclusivity 4 .
- The authors provide the first global analysis and review of current literature about biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation, drawing on and augmenting work undertaken for the first IPBES assessment 9 .
- Particular IPLCs may use some or all of these practices.
Results of the Analysis
- All six elements of the IPBES CF are presented in Figure 1 (a); and Figure 1 (b) presents the analysis of IPLCs' biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation into these elements, which includes b Indigenous and local knowledge is defined here in accordance with Diaz et al.
- It is also referred to by other terms such as, for example, Indigenous, local or traditional knowledge, traditional ecological/environmental knowledge (TEK), farmers' or fishers' knowledge, ethnoscience, indigenous science, folk science." recognition of drivers of unsustainable practices for pollinators which are evident among some IPLCs.
- The arrows between the elements reflect influences and interactions 5 which are not further described here.
Figure 1 (a) IPBES Conceptual Framework 5 and (b) analysis of biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation according to this Conceptual Framework
- Pollinators, pollination and good quality of life Pollinators and plant-pollinator interaction networks make vital contributions to IPLCs' quality of life, in both subsistence and market economies, as part of socio-cultural heritage, identity, and social relations 11 .
- Beekeeping provides a critical anchor for rural economies because: (1) minimal investment is required; (2) diverse products can be sold; (3) land ownership or rental is usually not necessary; (4) nutritional and medicinal benefits derive; (5) timing and location of activities are flexible; and (6) links to ILK and traditions are usually numerous 12 .
- Honey hunting makes significant contributions to some IPLCs, providing vital sustenance and deep connections with quality of life .
- Examples of contemporary honey-hunters include: the forest peoples of Indonesia; Ogiek people in Kenya; and Xingu people in Brazil 11 .
- The collection of entire bee colonies means that high protein components such as brood, royal jelly and pollen form important dietary constituents 14 .
Figure 2 Global patterns of the contribution of biocultural approaches for pollinators and pollination to quality of life, from studies/sites identified in the analysis: (a) beekeeping; (b) honey hunting; (c) Intangible Cultural Heritage listed as globally significant; (d) Cultural and Mixed Sites inscribed on the World Heritage List (WHL) with significance for pollinators
- Pollinators' roles in rituals, dances, myths and legends of IPLCs are recognised as globally significant through inclusions in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO .
- The World Heritage List is divided into sites listed for their cultural heritage; those listed for their natural heritage; and those that have both cultural and natural heritage, known as "mixed sites".
- Virtually all natural sites protect pollinators and many cultural and mixed sites protect and celebrate biocultural linkages between people and pollinators .
- Examples of sites that recognise biocultural approaches include the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, and the Osun Sacred Grove protected by Yoruba peoples near Osogbo, Nigeria.
- The Agave Landscape in Mexico recognizes biocultural interactions with this bat-pollinated plant used since at least the 16th century to produce tequila spirit, and for at least 2,000 years to make other fermented drinks, fibre and cloth.
Anthropogenic assets
- IPLCs develop and use anthropogenic assets, particularly technologies for honey-hunting and beekeeping 15 , that underpin the good quality of their lives.
- Honey hunters manufacture ladders in Ethiopia 16 and ropes from lianas in India 17 for tree-climbing.
- In France and Spain, anthropogenic assets include traditional swarming methods, harvest and honey extraction techniques, and diverse smokers 19 .
- Examples include its use for arrow cement in Bolivia; to soften skins, and make jewelry in Africa; and to make hunting tools, firesticks and didgeridoos, a traditional musical instrument, in Australia 10 .
Biocultural pollinator institutions and governance
- IPLCs' governance and institutional arrangements are central to biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation .
- Governance systems consist of actors (individuals and organisations), institutions (formal and informal rules and norms) and multi-level interactions (across scales and between organisations and institutions) 29 .
- Actors in biocultural governance systems often include actual pollinators, as IPLCs attribute authority to many spirits who are pollinators, including birds, bats, butterflies, bees and other insects 10 .
- Multilevel interactions highlight risks to these biocultural approaches, arising from lack of recognition of customary tenure and other rights at the nation-state level.
- Ogiek honey-hunters recently won the case ACHRP vs Republic of Kenya App. No. 006/2012 in the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights.
Drivers of change
- Many IPLCs report pollinator and pollination declines associated with expansion of industrial forestry and agriculture into their traditional lands, driving habitat loss and degradation, and replacing biodiverse habitat with monocultures 11 .
- Loss and decline of the stingless bees is linked with a loss of traditional knowledge and practices such as ethnomedicine (use of honey), cosmogony, and handcraft (using cerumen) 10 .
- Pollinators can themselves become threatened as IPLCs experience scarcity of wild food resources.
- Large flying foxes (Pteropus vampyrus natunae) in Kalimantan, Indonesia, are threatened by over-hunting for food 44 .
- Language holds culturally specific knowledge of local biodiversity, ethnobiological knowledge, as well as knowledge about traditional resource use, management practices and taxonomy.
Figure 3 Drawings by J.M.F. Camargo 52 , marked with the Kayapó names of the different anatomical structures of a bee (left) and ontogenetic stages of bee development (right). Reproduced with permission.
- Nature's contributions to people Nature's contributions to people (NCP) include all the contributions, both positive and negative, of nature (i.e. systems of life) to quality of life for people 8 .
- NCP are created through interactions between systems of life, anthropogenic assets, and institutions and governance.
- The context-specific perspective is recognised as potentially producing bundles or groups that follow from distinct lived experiences such as farming, or hunting and gathering.
- The authors analysis identified three such bundles or groups that are considered NCP as part of, and ways to foster, biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation: (1) the practice of valuing diversity and fostering biocultural diversity; (2) landscape management practices; and (3) diversified farming systems.
- Many IPLCs favour heterogeneity in land-use as well as in their gardens, tend to the conservation of nesting trees and flowering resources for bees, butterflies and other pollinators, name and classify a great range of wild bees, observe their habitat and food preferences.
Figure 4 Landscape management practices (a and b) and diversified farming systems (c and d), based on Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK), that are part of and foster pollinators' roles in Nature's Contributions to People (NCP)
- Three types of diversified farming systems based on ILK, scattered across the globe, were identified as part of, and ways to foster NCP .
- Evidence is accumulating that commodity agroforestry, practiced by IPLCs and resulting in a landscape matrix of fragments of high-biodiversity native vegetation amidst the agricultural crop, both produces food and maintains pollination services 54 .
- Home Gardens, capitalised to distinguish those characterised by producing a wide diversity of foods and medicinal plants, display complexity and multi-functionality, and provide habitat for a great diversity of pollinators 55 .
- Shifting cultivation (seasonal rotation of crops, trees, animals and intercropping) demonstrates diverse interdependencies with pollinators and remains important in many regions, particularly through the tropical world 56 .
- The traditional Mayan Milpa shifting cultivation produces a patchy landscape with forests in different stages of succession with a diverse array of plants, nearly all of which are pollinated by insects, birds and bats 57 .
Seven policies to support biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation
- IPLCs across the globe continue to practice many successful biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation.
- Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia required prior informed consent for their creation, and have protected culturally-significant pollinationdependent fruit, their bird and bat pollinators, and their habitats 10 .
- The Intangible Cultural Heritage List promotes understanding of practices which are listed-for example the protection of traditional knowledge of Totanac people, which includes agroforestry systems that protect pollinators and stingless beekeeping.
- Fostering livelihoods based on beekeeping can overcome many barriers to effective pollinator protection when they are able to link: (1) customary economies (that require ongoing protection of pollinators); (2) markets (that give these products economic significance); and (3) investments from government in accompanying research, market analysis and brokering 11 .
- Promoting food sovereignty helps pollination protection because of its connection with diversified farming systems and management practices that foster diversity and abundance of pollinators and pollination resources 65 .
Conclusion
- Pollinators and pollination have become worldwide heritage and IPLCs' have ancient and recent associations with these organisms, creating rich and unique biocultural manifestations.
- The contributions of IPLCs are therefore essential to decision-making and actions for the preservation of these key ecological resources.
- The authors consider that the suggested seven policies will strengthen vital ILK while providing ongoing opportunities for education, development and empowerment of the wellbeing of IPLCs and mutual benefits with broader societies.
- Local community-driven conservation initiatives can be successful and should be encouraged.
- The authors conclude that pollination and pollinators can be better preserved by acknowledging IPLCs and working together between ILK and science for sustainable ecosystem governance and management in this time of rapid global change.
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Cites background from "Biocultural approaches to pollinato..."
...…knowledge – or traditional ecological knowledge – on the behaviour, biology and ecology of pollinators can increase understanding of management practices that encourage pollinator diversity and abundance (IPBES, 2016b; Athayde, Stepp and Ballester, 2016; Jasmine et al., 2016; Hill et al., 2019)....
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...Terms such as biocultural approach have emerged as part of moves to include indigenous and local knowledge in conservation efforts (Hill et al., 2019)....
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"Biocultural approaches to pollinato..." refers background in this paper
...…approaches to pollinator conservation into these elements, which includes 64 b Indigenous and local knowledge is defined here in accordance with Diaz et al. 2015 as “A cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by…...
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Frequently Asked Questions (16)
Q2. How many species are used by IPLCs to classify?
205 ecological and behavioural characteristics as well as seasonal occurrence are used by IPLCs to classify 206 different plant and animal species, resulting in unique understandings of the systems of life45,46.
Q3. What is the role of the IPLCs in reducing pollinators?
Invasive species, such as African and European bees, are recognised 174 by IPLCs in South and Central America as driving declines in native pollinators and their products, 175 including stingless bee honey10.
Q4. What is the role of the FAO in promoting pollinator-friendly farming?
Participatory evaluation of pollinator-friendly farming 321 practices has been used by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) as an 322 effective framework for co-producing knowledge between scientists and farmers63.
Q5. What is the key requirement for the UN?
The United Nations 402 recognizes that no formal definition of whom are indigenous peoples and/or local 403 communities is needed—self-identification is the key requirement.
Q6. What are examples of cultural heritage that rely on pollinator-dependent resources?
Examples of Intangible 94 Cultural Heritage that rely on pollinator-dependent resources include knotted bag-making by forest 95 peoples of Papua, and barkcloth-making by the Baganda people in Uganda.
Q7. How many peoples are deeply grateful for their contributions?
Their contributions to the sustainable use and 440 conservation of biocultural diversity over millennia benefits many peoples globally, and the authors are 441 deeply grateful.
Q8. What are the main reasons why traditional farming systems are undervalued?
Traditional 163 farming systems are undervalued relative to commercial, industrial and trade-oriented resource 164 exploitation of the same spaces, despite the ecosystem services that traditional farming protects.
Q9. Who provided the knowledge and practices underpinning conservation of pollinators?
The authors thank the indigenous peoples and local communities globally who provided their knowledge of 438 practices and philosophies underpinning conservation of pollinators and pollination to the hundreds 43913of publications that the authors reviewed for this article.
Q10. What is the 550 historical political ecology of Tsimane' lands?
Indigenous land reconfiguration and fragmented institutions: A 550 historical political ecology of Tsimane' lands (Bolivian Amazon).
Q11. What are the common land tenure systems in the Philippines?
Land tenure systems are often multi-layered, for example in the 138 Philippines people can have tenure rights to communal, corporate and individual lands30.
Q12. What are examples of sites that recognise biocultural approaches?
Examples of sites that recognise biocultural approaches include the Coffee Cultural 101 Landscape of Colombia, and the Osun Sacred Grove protected by Yoruba peoples near Osogbo, 102 Nigeria.
Q13. What was the final step to enable this analysis?
The final steps to enable this analysis involved firstly updating 422 the review with publications since 2015 (the cut-off date for the IPBES pollination report), and 423 heritage sites and elements listed in 2016-17; and secondly re-analysing the data gathered through 424 the dialogues11 and literature to respond to all elements of the IPBES CF.
Q14. What are the three groups considered to be part of the NCP approach?
Their analysis identified three such bundles or 236 groups that are considered NCP as part of, and ways to foster, biocultural approaches to pollinator 237 conservation: (1) the practice of valuing diversity and fostering biocultural diversity; (2) landscape 238 management practices; and (3) diversified farming systems.
Q15. What was the first step in the IPBES global pollination assessment?
a global call was issued for indigenous and local knowledge holders from IPLCs and 385 experts who wished to contribute information relevant to pollinators and pollination, to participate 386 in global and community dialogues.
Q16. How did the IPBES global pollination 377 assessment achieve such engagement?
While the IPBES global pollination 377 assessment did not fully succeed in achieving such engagement, as knowledge-holders and their 378 institutions were not involved in the latter parts of the assessment, several methods, including 379 global and community dialogues in the early phases and tailored literature analyses, ensured a high-380 degree of rigour in their approach to working with ILK 67.