Reply to Bridgewater (2021), 'Response to Davies et al., 'Towards a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands"

We reply to the main concerns raised by Bridgewater (2021) in his response to Davies et al. (2021a), ‘Towards a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands’. We appreciate the contribution of Bridgewater (2021) to this emerging conversation and, although we disagree with some of his assessments and statements, we do not find his points to be incompatible with support for the Declaration of the Rights of Wetlands (ROW). This reply focuses on four areas of concern raised by Bridgewater (2021). First, we describe why a wetlands-specific declaration will add important value to other Rights of Nature declarations. Second, we discuss how the ROW does not detract from, but rather can contribute to and complement, existing conservation and management approaches and mechanisms. Third, we agree on the importance of weaving Indigenous and local knowledge with other knowledges and emphasise that the ROW should not be confused with or misused to undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Finally, we explain how legal rights can and have been granted to non-humans, including elements of Nature, such as wetlands.

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Local knowledge and practices towards the ecological restoration of selected landscape in Atok, Benguet, Philippines

Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity ◽

10.13057/biodiv/d220728 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (7) ◽

Author(s):

LEILA LANDICHO ◽

Maria Theresa Nemesis Ocampo ◽

Rowena Esperanza Cabahug ◽

Maryanne Abadillos ◽

Russel Son Cosico ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecological Restoration ◽

Local Knowledge ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Forest Conservation ◽

Diversity Index ◽

Local Communities ◽

Soil And Water Conservation ◽

Evenness Index ◽

Conservation And Management ◽

Soil And Water

Abstract. Landicho LD, Ocampo MTNP, Cabahug RED, Abadillos MG, Cosico RSA, Castillo AKA, Ramirez MAJP, Laruan KA. 2021. Local knowledge and practices towards the ecological restoration of selected landscape in Atok, Benguet, Philippines. Biodiversitas 22: 2785-2794. This study argues that local ecological knowledge and practices contribute to forest conservation and management efforts. This argument is based on the research conducted in upland communities in Atok, Benguet, Philippines. Interviews, farm visits, and focus group discussions revealed that the local communities have been dependent on the forest resources within the watershed in their agricultural production activities. These local communities employed their knowledge and practices towards restoring the ecological state of the watershed. These include the integration of trees on the farm, planting of Alnus japonica for soil and water conservation, the establishment of structural soil and water conservation, maintenance of communal forests, and awareness building among the youth on forest conservation and management. A moderate level of biodiversity and evenness index were in the conservation of giant tree ferns. A very low (0.9718) diversity index and a very high (0.825) evenness index were recorded in the farm lots, while a very low (0.437) diversity index and moderate (0.421) evenness index were measured in the communal forests. On the other hand, high soil organic matter contents of 6.49% and 5.86% were recorded both at the community and farm lots, respectively. Results imply the need to sustain the use of local knowledge and practices in combination with the technological interventions from academia and research institutions to enhance the ecological restoration of forest landscapes.

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Incorporation of Indigenous and Local Knowledge in Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Management

Arctic Review on Law and Politics ◽

10.23865/arctic.v10.1630 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (0) ◽

pp. 130 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Valentin Schatz

Keyword(s):

Arctic Ocean ◽

Fisheries Management ◽

Local Knowledge ◽

Local Communities ◽

Commercial Fishing ◽

Central Arctic Ocean ◽

Indigenous And Local Knowledge ◽

High Seas

On October 3, 2018, the so-called “Arctic Five plus Five�1 concluded the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOFA, CAOF Agreement or Ilulissat Agreement).2 The CAOFA establishes a precautionary framework for the regulation of fisheries in the high seas of the central Arctic Ocean (CAO), including a temporary moratorium on unregulated commercial fishing.3 The purpose of this debate article is not to discuss the CAOFA’s provisions on fisheries as such, but to take a look at a number of interesting and novel provisions concerning the interests of indigenous and local communities, particularly with respect to incorporation of indigenous and local knowledge into science-based fisheries management in the CAO.4

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Constitutional Law, Ecosystems, and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Biocultural Rights and Legal Subjects

Transnational Environmental Law ◽

10.1017/s204710252000014x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 521-540

Author(s):

Elizabeth Macpherson ◽

Julia Torres Ventura ◽

Felipe Clavijo Ospina

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Natural Resource Management ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Constitutional Law ◽

Local Communities ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Resource Ownership ◽

New Type ◽

Legal Subjects ◽

Collaborative Natural Resource Management

AbstractThe recognition of rivers and related ecosystems as legal persons or subjects is an emerging mechanism in transnational practice available to governments in seeking more effective and collaborative natural resource management, sometimes at the insistence of indigenous peoples. This approach is developing particularly quickly in Colombia, where legal rights for rivers and ecosystems are grasping onto, and evolving out of, constitutional human rights protections. This enables the development of a new type of constitutionalism of nature. Yet legal rights for rivers may obscure the rights of indigenous peoples and their role in resource ownership and governance. We argue that the Colombian river cases serve as a caution to courts and legislatures elsewhere to be mindful, in devising ecosystem rights, of the complex and interrelated rights, interests and tenures of indigenous peoples and local communities.

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Who Owns the World's Land? A global baseline of formally recognized indigenous and community land rights

10.53892/nxfo7501 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Land Tenure ◽

Land Rights ◽

Local Communities ◽

Environmental Conservation ◽

Current Status ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Community Based ◽

Cultural Survival ◽

National Governments

The first analysis to quantify the amount of land formally recognized by national governments as owned or controlled by Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world. Ownership of the world’s rural lands and natural resources is a major source of contestation around the globe, affecting prospects for rural economic development, human rights and dignity, cultural survival, environmental conservation, and efforts to combat climate change. Communities are estimated to hold as much as 65 percent of the world’s land area through customary, community-based tenure systems. However, national governments only recognize formal, legal rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to a fraction of these lands. Some countries are in the process of recognizing communities’ rights, and estimates from those countries provide some indication of the size of these gaps in recognition. As demands for land tenure reform increase and national processes to recognize land rights advance, this report provides a baseline that documents the current status of formal, statutory recognition of community-based tenure.

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Cultivating Ice over Time: On the Idea of Timeless Knowledge and Places in the Himalayas

Anthropologica ◽

10.3138/anth.582.t03 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 193-210 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Karine Gagné

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Sense Of Community ◽

Local Knowledge ◽

Local Communities ◽

International Organisations ◽

Change Over Time ◽

Local Populations ◽

Close Study ◽

Indian Himalayas ◽

Over Time

Assumptions that local communities have an endogenous capacity to adapt to climate change stemming from time-tested knowledge and an inherent sense of community that prompts mobilisation are becoming increasingly common in material produced by international organisations. This discourse, which relies on ahistorical and apolitical conceptions of localities and populations, is based on ideas of timeless knowledge and places. Analysing the water-place nexus in Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas, through a close study of glacier practices as they change over time, the article argues that local knowledge is subject to change and must be analysed in light of changing conceptions and experiences of place by the state and by local populations alike.

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When Rights Embrace Responsibilities

10.1093/oso/9780199485154.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Giulia Sajeva

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Indigenous People ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Local Communities ◽

Economic Interests ◽

Group Rights ◽

Potential Applicability ◽

Protection Of Human Rights ◽

Relationship Of

The conservation of environment and the protection of human rights are two of the most compelling needs of our time. Unfortunately, they are not always easy to combine and too often result in mutual harm. This book analyses the idea of biocultural rights as a proposal for harmonizing the needs of environmental and human rights. These rights, considered as a basket of group rights, are those deemed necessary to protect the stewardship role that certain indigenous peoples and local communities have played towards the environment. With a view to understanding the value and merits, as well as the threats that biocultural rights entail, the book critically assesses their foundations, content, and implications, and develops new perspectives and ideas concerning their potential applicability for promoting the socio-economic interests of indigenous people and local communities. It further explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between conservation of environment and protection of human rights.

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