Durban Accord issued at the 2003 World
Parks Congress celebrated “the miracle of
the diversity of nature and of cultures that
possess the wealth, the wisdom and knowl-
edge to enable conservation and sustainable
use”, noted the profound transformations
causing loss of both biological and cultural
diversity, and urged commitment to
strengthen protected areas worldwide based
on threats to both natural and cultural her-
itage. Within IUCN, the Commission on
Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy
(CEESP)’s proposed 2005-2008 programme
includes a Culture and Conservation theme
that aims, among other things, to improve
“knowledge, policy, and practice linking cul-
tural and biological diversity and their com-
mon threats and strengthening opportuni-
ties”.^34 The topic of biocultural diversity will
also be addressed at the World
Conservation Congress in November 2004.
Clearly, the ongoing global work in the field
of biocultural diversity is well poised to
engage with the international policy arena.
On the other hand, only “zooming in” on
given sub-global geographical areas with a
biocultural lens can allow for in-depth and
comprehensive analyses and for the imple-
mentation of specific local, regional, or
national plans for biocultural diversity con-
servation. Studies are beginning to be
developed that seek to analyze given areas
as “biocultural ecoregions”—that is, areas
whose makeup is explicitly recognised as
being shaped by the mutual interactions
between humans and the environment over
time.
Biocultural diversity in practice
One such example is a study focusing on
the Colorado Plateau of the US Southwest,
one of North America’s most bioculturally
diverse ecoregions.^35 This study synthesises
and integrates for the first time a wide
range of data on the natural and cultural
makeup of the Colorado Plateau. It brings
out the close relationship, both historical
and present-day, between humans and the
environment in this ecoregion, paying spe-
cial attention to the role of traditional
knowledge and languages in shaping and
sustaining this relationship. This work also
provides a preliminary assessment of the
current state of the Plateau’s climatic, geo-
morphological, hydrological, biological, eth-
nolinguistic, and agricultural diversity. It
identifies trends in these diversities and
some of the main threats that are affecting
them, and envisions future prospects if such
trends and threats continue. It further seeks
to outline suitable response options to
counteract and, if possible, reverse negative
trends in the region’s biocultural diversity.More such context-specific studies are need-
ed in order to refine our understanding of
human-environment ecosystems from a bio-
cultural perspective, and to flesh out the
policy and implementation frameworks
required to foster biocultural diversity con-
servation regionally. Meanwhile, there is
much to be learned from the many grass-
roots efforts already underway throughout
the world. While these local-level initiatives
may or may not conceptualise themselves
as “biocultural” in nature, they are often so
in practice. In ingenious and creative ways
they manage to maintain, protect, and
restore the links between language, knowl-
edge, and the environment in an integrated
way. For local communities, those links are
not a matter of scientific discovery. They
are a matter of everyday, lived experience.In the Sierra Tarahumara mountains of
northern Mexico, the Rarámuri people, one
of the most resilient indigenous groups of
North America, are struggling to maintain
their ecosystem-based livelihoods and their
cultural integrity in the face of external and
local forces that are degrading the environ-
ment, affecting their way of life, and alien-
ating the younger generations. They have
focused on the creation of a complementary
education initiative, for both students and