Across forests, rivers, deserts, and mountains Indigenous and local communities have shaped and protected the living world through knowledge systems grounded in place, spirit, and intergenerational responsibility. These knowledge systems embodied in language, stories, ceremonies and their daily life are more than just their cultural heritage. They are living systems of care for the Earth’s biocultural diversity.

A growing body of research confirms what Indigenous Peoples have long known: you cannot separate the conservation of nature and the planet from the continuity of culture. One powerful academic review, “Indigenous and local knowledge in biocultural approaches to sustainability: review of the literature” (2022) (Indigenous and local knowledge in biocultural approaches to sustainability:a review of the literature in Spanish) gathers decades of research to show how Indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) is vital to ecological and cultural resilience. The review concludes that alternative futures are possible through the ways biocultural sustainability engages with ILK, beyond dominant perspectives on what sustainability means.

“Indigenous and local knowledge systems are essential to the maintenance and conservation of biocultural diversity and the resilience of socio-ecological systems.”

The study authors pulled together 72 Spanish-language publications to include in their review, specifically looking at links between biocultural approaches to sustainability and Indigenous and Local Knowledge. They found three themes to be important (and controversial!) in the published literature: 1) different strategies to bridge diverse knowledge systems, 2) conflicting views on the place of Indigenous and Local Knowledge in sustainability efforts, and 3) threats to ILK. 

This review reminds us ILK is not an alternative or complementary approach to sustainability, it is fundamental. The article reveals how Indigenous communities across the world continue to act as stewards of biodiversity, through their own systems of governance, ethics and observation. Examples from Amazonian fire management to Himalayan rotational grazing show how traditional ecological knowledge is rooted in generations of lived experience and spiritual connection.

“Many ILK systems comprise not only detailed ecological knowledge and sustainable practices but also institutions for governance, rules, ethics, beliefs and worldviews that guide the relationship between people and nature.”

For the IMC Fund this is more than a theory, it is a call to action.

At the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund we uplift this truth not only in words but in practice. Our work is rooted in the understanding that Indigenous led biocultural conservation is central to the protection of each bioculture that we stand behind and the territories where they flourish. We walk in partnership with the knowledge holders who carry the wisdom, stories, who care for their territories and their culture.

The communities we work with are guardians of different biocultures like ayahuasca, iboga, peyote, mushrooms, and toad, and they are also the guardians of watersheds, forests, and ancestral seed banks. The same hands tend the Earth. Their knowledge is both deeply local and globally significant. And yet as the review points out this knowledge is increasingly endangered:

“The erosion of ILK systems due to globalization, land dispossession, loss of languages and environmental degradation is contributing to the loss of biocultural diversity and weakening the resilience of socio-ecological systems.”

This is why the IMC Fund exists, to ensure Indigenous and local knowledge systems are not only protected, but bioculture respected and allowed to thrive.

We don’t impose solutions, we follow the leadership of those whose lives are bound to the health of their territories and we support them in protecting their traditional bioculture, defend their land rights and educate future generations. Their knowledge is whole, it just needs support and sovereignty.

This review article underscores the path forward. True sustainability cannot be achieved without justice. And justice begins by recognizing Indigenous peoples not just as stakeholders but as the primary knowledge holders and land stewards.

“Biocultural approaches call for the recognition of multiple knowledge systems and the need for intercultural dialogue and equitable collaborations in sustainability efforts.”

We believe this is not only possible, but we believe it is already happening. Every IMC Fund partner is living this vision: safeguarding their knowledge and defending their territories, transmitting knowledge, and tending the biocultural landscape of their people.

To protect biodiversity we must protect the cultures who have lived in relationship with it for millennia. To safeguard these biocultures we must safeguard the hands and hearts that carry it. And to imagine a future of planetary balance we must listen, deeply and respectfully to those who have never forgotten how to live in right relation with the Earth.

References: Indigenous and local knowledge in biocultural approaches to sustainability:a review of the literature in Spanish 

Burke, L., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Lam, D. P. M., & Hanspach, J. (2022). Indigenous and local knowledge in biocultural approaches to sustainability: a review of the literature in Spanish. Ecosystems and People, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2157490

Leonie Burke, Isabel Díaz-Reviriego, David P. M. Lam and Jan Hanspach Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana, Lüneburg, Germany