Part 1: Indigenous Approaches to Biosphere Integrity could save Global Biodiversity

Figure 1. Image from a Friday's for Future School Climate Strike Protest.

Today I'm going to discuss Indigenous approaches to one planetary boundary in particular, biosphere integrity. Indigenous communities offer a unique expertise on local ecosystem characteristics and around 80% of all the world’s biodiversity is located on Indigenous lands.

Figure 2. The Indagen village community in Papua New Guinea participating in biodiversity management.

What is biosphere integrity?

Biosphere integrity is a core boundary and one of the four planetary boundaries that has been transgressed. There is evidence that we are in the midst one of the greatest mass extinctions in history due to anthropogenic actions like overexploitation of natural resources and agriculture. The expansion of globalised trade networks, and what Harvey (1995) categorises as the spatial fix of capitalism, has outsourced the ecological consequences of primary production including biodiversity loss from developed to developing countries (Krausmann and Langthaler, 2019).These are regions which also contain many of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

Figure 3. An infographic demonstrating the main causes of biodiversity decline.

Biosphere integrity is critically important for the stability of the earth system, the wellbeing of humanity and for general ecosystem functioning. Species richness and functional characteristics increase forest resilience and mitigate the impact of large disturbances like drought. Biodiversity also influences key processes like primary productivity and decomposition. Cardinale et al. (2007) explains the link between plant biomass and productivity through the combination of a ‘sampling effect’, i.e. where species richness increases the likelihood of the emergence of highly productive species, and ‘complementarity effects’, where biomass is enhanced by biological mechanisms that involve numerous species, allowing more efficient resource use and higher productivity. Functions like primary productivity and decomposition subsequently facilitate major biological processes like carbon sequestration and storage. If you want to learn more about the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, check out this UNEP report.

Studies have simulated the impact of biodiversity loss on plant production relative to other forms of global environmental change. Research suggests that moderate levels of species loss (21–40%) reduced plant production by 5–10%, which was comparatively higher than the impact other drivers. When extinction levels were simulated at 41–60%, the impacts also rivalled those of ozone and ocean acidification. Unlike biosphere integrity, these planetary boundaries have been addressed through major legislation (Hooper, Adair et al., 2012).

Indigenous-led strategies for biosphere integrity

Within western-scientific discourse, biodiversity has been quantified through provisioning, supporting, cultural and regulating ecosystem services (ES). An alternative metric created by the IPBES, nature's contribution to people (NCP), captures the value of biodiversity beyond the economic benefits, representing a "broad range of worldviews, knowledge systems, stakeholders" and contributions to quality of life. For example, cultural value underpinned all of NCP's categories (regulating, material, nonmaterial) in contrast to ES. Supporters have also argued its "context-specific perspective" promotes constructive dialogue between actors with different epistemologies, interests, and values.

The emergence of metrics like NCP reflects the need for Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK) in environmental governance. A recent 2019 IPCC report discussed the unique positioning of Indigenous communities to climate change in terms of both impacts and solutions. It has high confidence that technological solutions derived from ILK are necessary to adapt and mitigate against desertification in dryland areas through holistic crop, soil and water management measures, for example. Indigenous agroecological practices like moisture conservation through rainwater harvesting, and agroforestry techniques like shelterbelts and mulch cover maintenance, increase rates of carbon sequestration in drylands. This video created by the UN summaries how "locally fine-tuned" Indigenous knowledge is being used to increase community resilience to climate change.

Moreover, the combination of traditional knowledge and new technologies has great potential to create innovative solutions to biodiversity loss. Inuit communities have used GPS systems to record the location, use, condition and changes in hunting trails, which form key transport linkages and relational networks of food sharing, storytelling and knowledge exchanges (teaching and hunting skills). These are overlaid with other data to produce maps for the community.

Approaches aiming to preserve the biocultural heritage of Quechua communities in Peru’s Potato Park have achieved conservation and development goals. Through partnerships with scientists and a participatory and indigenous-led strategy, efforts to reinvigorate Quechua culture, customary laws and restore native varieties of potatoes has increased potato diversity threefold to roughly 650 native varieties despite increasing aridity arising from climate change. Other benefits has included the conservation of general Andea biodiversity and water in the region, and the doubling of incomes through eco-tourism and the sale of biocultural products like potato shampoo.

Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems can inform sustainable and resilient solutions to global biodiversity loss. However, there are barriers that are preventing Indigenous communities from protecting their territories. Stay tuned for part 2...