Anthropological Approaches to Advocacy and Traditional Right: developing local global feedback for policy advocacy on biocultural diversity

Principal Investigator: Dario Novellino
Co-investigator: Miguel Alexiades
Project dates: 2007-2009
Funding: "Global Biocultural Initiative Program" of The Christensen Fund (TCF)

Background and overall objectives: Starting from the early 1990’s, international organizations have promoted statements and policy documents valuing traditional ecological knowledge, the need to respect indigenous livelihood practices, and the importance of forging partnerships with local communities. Despite all progress made at the international advocacy level, the stories and the constraints of local people are, all too often, not heard or listened to. As a result, global policies have seldom resulted in appropriate local policies. This project, drawing on a wide range of anthropological field methods, aims at generating global awareness of indigenous ecological knowledge and sustainable land management practices through networking and consensus building - with a view to mobilizing supportive policies to help sustaining biocultural diversity. Specifically it underwrites work with the shepherds in Central Italy (Mt. Aurunci Regional Park), Batak swiddeners and hunter-gatherers of Palawan (Philippines) and the Ese Eja of Western Amazonia (Peru and Bolivia) to establish digitally-mediated exchanges of spoken stories. This is to ensure that people’s unique perspectives and most intangible aspects of their knowledge be shared with each other and communicated to decision makers, thus having a stronger impact on the way in which policies on biocultural diversity are designed and implemented. Three pilot areas have been chosen for their potential to provide general models on the role of traditional knowledge in the management of protected areas, applicable to Mediterranean and Tropical regions - as well as to both developed and developing countries.