Christopher Crouzet [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https-//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
This article was originally published on Phys.org
“Ecological restoration projects actively involving indigenous peoples and local communities are more successful. This is the result of a study carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), which places value on indigenous and local knowledge contributions in the restoring degraded ecosystems, and highlights the need to engage indigenous communities in these projects for ensuring a long-term maintenance of restored areas.
Indigenous peoples and local communities are affected by global environmental change because they rely on their immediate environment to meet basic livelihood needs. Therefore, safeguarding and restoring ecosystem resilience is critical to ensuring their food and health sovereignty and overall well-being. Their vested interest in restoring the ecosystems from which they directly benefit and their intimate knowledge of their lands, resources and the dynamics affecting them, position them as key elements in the attainment of the ecological restoration projects goals. However, the contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities continue to be largely absent in international environmental policy fora, which prioritise biological importance and restoration feasibility over local concern.
The study, led by ICREA researcher at ICTA-UAB Victoria Reyes-García, reviews hundreds of instances in which, through traditional practices, indigenous peoples have contributed to managing, adapting and restoring the land, sometimes creating new types of highly biodiverse ecosystems. “There are many examples in which indigenous peoples have taken leadership roles in restoring forests, lakes and rivers, grasslands and drylands, mangroves and reefs, and wetlands degraded by outsiders or climate change, successfully coupling the goals of restoration and increasing participation of local population,” explains Victoria Reyes-García…”
Read on at: Phys.org
