What’s Your Story? Finding Your Place In Nature Through Biocultural Diversity
When it comes to nature, we can’t deny that we (in the human collective sense) have made mistakes. Through our actions, and those of some (not all to be fair) of our ancestors, we have contributed to the metacrisis threatening Earth’s natural systems upon which our own thriving depends.
Given that the stories that we tell ourselves, individually and collectively, shape how we relate to the world around us… are we the villain in the story of life on Earth?
Or perhaps we are now the hero, having realised the folly of our past, now ready to save life on Earth?
Clearly if we want hope for a better future, framing ourselves as the villain is counter productive. Such a story, unable to unite humanity, offers little potential for redemption. Yet the ‘heroic’ frame may be just as dangerous, itself reinforcing the underlying assumption that humans stand separate from, and superior to, Nature — its former executioner turned saviour.
If we are not the villain, nor the hero, what then is our story when it comes to nature? If we want to live in healthy relation to Nature, contributing to a sustainable or even regenerative society, how do we find our place?
What if the answers don’t lie within any single story? The resilience of natural systems comes through diversity right? So given that humans are part of Nature, then human cultures are simply an expression of Nature, and therefore the resilience of our cultural systems necessarily also depends upon diversity. This ‘biocultural diversity’ can be thought of as the sum of and differences between all the links and interdependencies between human cultures with the natural systems from which these cultures have emerged (through mutual adaptation and co-evolution).
In short, when it comes to understanding your place in Nature — with the natural systems that our ancestors and their cultures have co-evolved with for hundreds of thousands of years — a great place to start would be forming a deep appreciation of biocultural diversity.
Undervaluing Biocultural Diversity
Traditional conservation (strategies developed and implemented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily by Western conservation organizations and colonial administrations) often aimed to protect nature by excluding human activity, positioning humans as separate from or even detrimental to natural ecosystems.
In contrast, today the field of conservation is maturing in its understanding that humans play an integral role within nature, having co-evolved as a part of the system, never in isolation from it. It stands therefore that we cannot achieve lasting conservation, or indeed positively regenerative cultures, without considering the quality of human relationship with the environment that we seek to support as evidenced through biocultural diversity.
Even today, conservation’s historical blindness to the importance of biocultural diversity plays out in many different ways:
- Exclusion of Indigenous people from practicing stewardship of traditional lands/waters.
- Rejection of the value of traditional ecological knowledge in preference for ‘objective’ methods.
- Overconfidence in technical and/or remote processes over local/human ground-truthing.
- Collective apathy — i.e., a general sense that nature repair is someone else’s problem.
‘Stories all the Way Down’
When it comes to making sense of the world we move through, do we ever really have direct access to reality? Or is it the stories we tell ourselves, that we receive from others, that we are co-creating and updating in real time, that ultimately shape our understanding of all that we experience? We each author and constantly edit our own personal stories. These stories emerge and evolve in constant interplay with the stories moving through our broader cultural context.
Tyson Yunkaporta, in his book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, emphasizes the critical role of stories in maintaining and transmitting cultural knowledge and ecological practices. He explains that stories are not merely narratives but are integral to the fabric of social and ecological systems, acting as a medium through which cultural values, knowledge, and practices are shared and preserved. Yunkaporta highlights that “all stories sit in an ecosystem of stories,” verifying and validating each other within a cultural context, ensuring that knowledge remains dynamic and relevant across generations. He underscores that storytelling in Indigenous cultures often avoids the Western narrative structure of a linear progression with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it focuses on the relationships and connections between all elements of the story, emphasizing a more holistic and interconnected understanding of the world.
On Yunkaporta’s podcast The Other Others, guests David Turnbull and Sienna Stubbs (episode ‘Stories All The Way Down’) explore how sharing stories with people who see the world differently from you helps you make sense of the world together, coming to see that there are other ways of being.
Stories of Stewardship
Traditional Ecological Knowledge is the accumulated knowledge, practices, and beliefs developed by Indigenous and local communities through long-term interactions with their natural surroundings. Some inspiring examples include:
- The Māori concept of “kaitiakitanga” embodies the guardianship and protection of the land and waters, reflecting a deep cultural responsibility towards nature.
- The Lacandon Maya practice of “milpa,” a sustainable form of agriculture, has supported biodiversity and the health of tropical forests for millennia. Their intricate knowledge of plant species and ecosystem dynamics demonstrates how traditional practices can sustain ecological balance and promote biodiversity.
- The Hawaiian Ahupua’a system, which integrates resource management across different ecosystems from mountains to sea, emphasises a holistic approach to natural resource management.
- The Wixárika (Huichol) people regard Wirikuta, a sacred site in the Chihuahuan Desert, as central to their cultural and spiritual identity. This area is not only a biodiversity hotspot with unique flora and fauna but also a place of deep cultural significance. The Wixárika manage this land using traditional practices that maintain its ecological health and biodiversity. They have successfully resisted large-scale industrial activities such as mining, which threaten the integrity of this sacred landscape. Their management practices include protecting water sources and sacred sites, ensuring that their traditional land use supports both cultural and ecological sustainability.
- In Australia Traditional Custodians have practised ‘cultural burning’, for thousands of years to maintain the health of their land. Controlled burns prevent large wildfires, promote the growth of native plants, and create habitats for various species.
While Traditional Ecological Knowledge provides invaluable insights into sustainable practices honed over millennia, it is also crucial to acknowledge and value other stories of human-nature connection. These narratives, whether from rural farmers, urban gardeners, environmental activists, or even novice nature explorers, each contribute unique perspectives and solutions to our understanding of and relationship with the natural world. By embracing a diverse array of stories, we enrich our collective knowledge and foster a more inclusive approach to conservation that respects and integrates various human experiences and wisdom.
Continued respectful integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and local community knowledge/stories of nature with modern scientific approaches enriches conservation practices, making them more effective and sustainable.
Stories Grounded in Place
Guardians of Earth’s Nature Realms are digital twins of the ecological and biocultural health of a specific location. They are designed to support community-led regenerative projects delivering science-based approaches integrated with local/traditional knowledge systems. Local communities are often the best stewards of their environments, holding locally and culturally contextual knowledge that is able to ‘ground-truth’ technical biodiversity monitoring and conservation approaches. Initiatives like decentralized community-driven biodiversity monitoring empower locals to take charge of conservation efforts, ensuring that practices are tailored to the specific needs of the ecosystem.
Here’s some examples of diverse stories emerging from Nature Realms:
San Crisanto, Mexico
Błędowska Desert, Poland
Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
Nura Gunyu, Australia
Conclusion
The stories we share with each other shape how we move through and interact with the natural world. Any biodiversity conservation efforts that hope to enable healthy human-nature relationships will clearly benefit from deeper appreciation of biocultural diversity. Guardians of Earth’s Nature Realms innovative integration of nature storytelling and community participation as core elements in the measurement of the health of local ecosystems exemplifies this approach. By embracing these principles, we can move towards a more inclusive and effective approach to thriving biodiversity and regenerative cultures.
You’re a Part of This Story
There are many ways that you can be a part of this transformative movement to regenerate our planet and empower communities. You are already Guardians of Earth, next step:
- Follow the Journey: Follow GoE’s blog, or visit their socials (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook).
- Play the Spirits of the Realms nature-positive mobile game.
- Join the Community: Introduce yourself on the GoE Discord and actively contribute to the discussions that shape this journey.
- Visit the Guardians of Earth (GoE) website to learn more.
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