• Energy Research

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M CONTEXT: Rapid social-ecological changes such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource overexploitation are threatening food security, livelihoods, and local knowledge of small-scale farmers worldwide. There has been a call from scientists, farmers, and activists to identify and promote the mechanisms for sustaining resilient farming livelihoods. We hypothesize that small-scale farmers who are more knowledgeable about changes in their environment are more resilient to current social-ecological changes as they might be more prepared to respond to these disturbances. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to understand how Indigenous and local knowledge on social-ecological changes is associated with small-scale farmers' livelihood resilience in the Chiloé Archipelago, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System and Global Biodiversity Hotspot in southern South America. METHODS: We conducted 100 surveys with small-scale farmers whose main livelihood activity relied on agrosilvopastoral systems. By asking questions about noticed changes in the atmospheric, physical, biological, and human system, we built an Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes. We also built an Index of Livelihood Resilience based on households' information on indicators of five capital assets (i.e., financial, human, social, physical, and natural). Finally, by using general linear mixed models, we tested the association between the Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes, individual capital assets, and the Index of Livelihood Resilience. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We found that the level of small-scale farmers' knowledge was similar across the different systems (atmospheric, physical, biological, and human). We observed a significant positive association between the Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes and the Index of Livelihood Resilience, as well as with the natural, social, and physical capital of small-scale farmers. SIGNIFICANCE: By demonstrating the positive association between measures of Indigenous and local knowledge on social-ecological changes and indicators of livelihood resilience, our results suggest that people who are more knowledgeable about changes in their environment might be more prepared to respond to disturbances. While there might be other factors influencing livelihood resilience, our study highlights the importance of leveraging Indigenous and local knowledge, and their respective holders, when planning responses to current social-ecological crises.

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M CONTEXT: Rapid social-ecological changes such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource overexploitation are threatening food security, livelihoods, and local knowledge of small-scale farmers worldwide. There has been a call from scientists, farmers, and activists to identify and promote the mechanisms for sustaining resilient farming livelihoods. We hypothesize that small-scale farmers who are more knowledgeable about changes in their environment are more resilient to current social-ecological changes as they might be more prepared to respond to these disturbances. OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to understand how Indigenous and local knowledge on social-ecological changes is associated with small-scale farmers' livelihood resilience in the Chiloé Archipelago, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System and Global Biodiversity Hotspot in southern South America. METHODS: We conducted 100 surveys with small-scale farmers whose main livelihood activity relied on agrosilvopastoral systems. By asking questions about noticed changes in the atmospheric, physical, biological, and human system, we built an Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes. We also built an Index of Livelihood Resilience based on households' information on indicators of five capital assets (i.e., financial, human, social, physical, and natural). Finally, by using general linear mixed models, we tested the association between the Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes, individual capital assets, and the Index of Livelihood Resilience. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We found that the level of small-scale farmers' knowledge was similar across the different systems (atmospheric, physical, biological, and human). We observed a significant positive association between the Index of Knowledge on Social-Ecological Changes and the Index of Livelihood Resilience, as well as with the natural, social, and physical capital of small-scale farmers. SIGNIFICANCE: By demonstrating the positive association between measures of Indigenous and local knowledge on social-ecological changes and indicators of livelihood resilience, our results suggest that people who are more knowledgeable about changes in their environment might be more prepared to respond to disturbances. While there might be other factors influencing livelihood resilience, our study highlights the importance of leveraging Indigenous and local knowledge, and their respective holders, when planning responses to current social-ecological crises.

Social unrest is on the rise worldwide amid deepening inequalities, environmental degradation, and job crises worsened by increasing social-environmental conflicts. In Chile, a social revolt in 2019 resulted in a national referendum in 2020. An ample majority (78.3% vs. 21.7%) voted to draft a new constitution to replace the current constitution drawn up under dictatorship. The result led to the emergence and empowerment of several organizations demanding an “ecological constitution”. In this context, we aim to analyze: (1) the main social-environmental conflicts in Chile and how they are related to the country’s current constitution, and (2) the potential drafting of an ecological constitution that addresses these conflicts. Across different industries in Chile, we observed common problems that are intrinsically related to the current constitution. This relationship seems to be perceived by Chilean citizens since a survey carried out in May 2021 found 79% support for an ecological constitution. Moreover, 105 of the 155 delegates to the constitutional convention proposed three or more environmental principles to be included in the new constitution. A potential ecological constitution entails principles that would improve the current situation of social-environmental conflicts in Chile. Based on our analysis, we recommend the establishment of watershed-based “territorial rights” in the new Chilean constitution to improve sustainability and environmental justice.

Social unrest is on the rise worldwide amid deepening inequalities, environmental degradation, and job crises worsened by increasing social-environmental conflicts. In Chile, a social revolt in 2019 resulted in a national referendum in 2020. An ample majority (78.3% vs. 21.7%) voted to draft a new constitution to replace the current constitution drawn up under dictatorship. The result led to the emergence and empowerment of several organizations demanding an “ecological constitution”. In this context, we aim to analyze: (1) the main social-environmental conflicts in Chile and how they are related to the country’s current constitution, and (2) the potential drafting of an ecological constitution that addresses these conflicts. Across different industries in Chile, we observed common problems that are intrinsically related to the current constitution. This relationship seems to be perceived by Chilean citizens since a survey carried out in May 2021 found 79% support for an ecological constitution. Moreover, 105 of the 155 delegates to the constitutional convention proposed three or more environmental principles to be included in the new constitution. A potential ecological constitution entails principles that would improve the current situation of social-environmental conflicts in Chile. Based on our analysis, we recommend the establishment of watershed-based “territorial rights” in the new Chilean constitution to improve sustainability and environmental justice.

AbstractWhile ethnobiology is a discipline that focuses on the local, it has an outstanding, but not yet fully realized potential to address global issues. Part of this unrealized potential is that universalistic approaches often do not fully recognize culturally grounded perspectives and there are multiple challenges with scaling up place-based research. However, scalability is paramount to ensure that the intimate and context-specific diversity of human–environmental relationships and understandings are recognized in global-scale planning and policy development. Here, we identify four pathways to enable the scalability of place-based ethnobiological research from the ground up: local-to-global dialogues, aggregation of published data, multi-sited studies, and geospatial analyses. We also discuss some major challenges and consideration to encourage continuous reflexivity in these endeavours and to ensure that scalability does not contribute to unnecessarily decontextualizing, co-opting, or overwriting the epistemologies of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. As ethnobiology navigates multiple scales of time and space and seeks to increase its breadth, this study shows that the use of deliberately global approaches, when carefully nested within rich field-based and ecological and ethnographically grounded data, can contribute to: (1) upscaling case-specific insights to unveil global patterns and dynamics in the biocultural contexts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities; (2) bringing ethnobiological knowledge into resolutions that can influence global environmental research and policy agendas; and (3) enriching ethnobiology’s field-based ethos with a deliberate global analytical focus.

AbstractWhile ethnobiology is a discipline that focuses on the local, it has an outstanding, but not yet fully realized potential to address global issues. Part of this unrealized potential is that universalistic approaches often do not fully recognize culturally grounded perspectives and there are multiple challenges with scaling up place-based research. However, scalability is paramount to ensure that the intimate and context-specific diversity of human–environmental relationships and understandings are recognized in global-scale planning and policy development. Here, we identify four pathways to enable the scalability of place-based ethnobiological research from the ground up: local-to-global dialogues, aggregation of published data, multi-sited studies, and geospatial analyses. We also discuss some major challenges and consideration to encourage continuous reflexivity in these endeavours and to ensure that scalability does not contribute to unnecessarily decontextualizing, co-opting, or overwriting the epistemologies of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. As ethnobiology navigates multiple scales of time and space and seeks to increase its breadth, this study shows that the use of deliberately global approaches, when carefully nested within rich field-based and ecological and ethnographically grounded data, can contribute to: (1) upscaling case-specific insights to unveil global patterns and dynamics in the biocultural contexts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities; (2) bringing ethnobiological knowledge into resolutions that can influence global environmental research and policy agendas; and (3) enriching ethnobiology’s field-based ethos with a deliberate global analytical focus.