146 Garrett Graddy-Lovelace
controls the adulthood of peoples’ lives, according to Jeneda Banally’s overview
of the movement (Pungetti & Cinquepalmi, 2012, p. 409). Yet, it is situated on
National Forest Service land, not on reservations or tribal territories. The U.S.
Forest Service has been working to manufacture snow utilizing wastewater from
the peaks; the Diné community leadership has worked diligently to defend the
sacred mountains by invoking their cosmological, biocultural significance. A
team of conservation scientists focusing on pollinators co-authored a 2019 intervention for Nature Sustainability asserting the necessity of a biocultural perspective in analyses of root causes of biodiversity loss and ways forward for equitable
and effective protections – globally, and thus in the U.S. as well (Hill et al., 2019).
Other conservationists focusing on resilience indicators for the U.S. landscapes
and species contend that biocultural approaches are key for “moving beyond the
human-nature dichotomy” (Caillon et al., 2017).
Meanwhile, the world-renowned Biocultural Heritage Territory of the Potato
Park in Andean Peru remains an ongoing influence, inspiring and informing initiatives across Abya Yala and Turtle Island. In one instance, Alejandro Argumedo
and others in the Lares Barter Market Biocultural Heritage Territory collaborate
with Appalachian-based seedkeeping coalitions (and Mayan ones in Yucatan,
Mexico) in a transnational, indigenous-led project: “Agrobiodiversity N ourishes/
Agrobiodiversidad Nutre: Community-Based Research, Policy & Guidance for
Agrarian Equity & Well-being”, now a Special Feature at the journal Elementa:
Science of the Anthropocene.
In short, there exists an abundance of initiatives percolating in a broader emergence of biocultural recognition and recovery, orientation and political commitment. Yet, they are often underrepresented, unsupported, and undervalued at the
federal – and thus the international – level of policy.
Ratified
As Biocultural Community Protocols and indigenous-led initiatives for
biocultural rights proliferate across Turtle Island, the U.S. government continues
to play an obstructionist role as the sole non-party of the CBD. But, meanwhile,
in 2016, the U.S. did ratify the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture, 15 years after the Treaty was approved and opened
for signatures and ratification. The U.S. government website announces and
explains this move as one of securing easy access:
Ready access to plant genetic resources – that is, seeds, bulbs, roots and
other materials from which plants can be reproduced – is needed to meet
the daunting challenges of feeding a growing global population, combating environmental degradation and constantly evolving pests and diseases,
and facilitating continued productivity of agriculture in the United States
and worldwide.
(U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome, 2017)
controls the adulthood of peoples’ lives, according to Jeneda Banally’s overview
of the movement (Pungetti & Cinquepalmi, 2012, p. 409). Yet, it is situated on
National Forest Service land, not on reservations or tribal territories. The U.S.
Forest Service has been working to manufacture snow utilizing wastewater from
the peaks; the Diné community leadership has worked diligently to defend the
sacred mountains by invoking their cosmological, biocultural significance. A
team of conservation scientists focusing on pollinators co-authored a 2019 intervention for Nature Sustainability asserting the necessity of a biocultural perspective in analyses of root causes of biodiversity loss and ways forward for equitable
and effective protections – globally, and thus in the U.S. as well (Hill et al., 2019).
Other conservationists focusing on resilience indicators for the U.S. landscapes
and species contend that biocultural approaches are key for “moving beyond the
human-nature dichotomy” (Caillon et al., 2017).
Meanwhile, the world-renowned Biocultural Heritage Territory of the Potato
Park in Andean Peru remains an ongoing influence, inspiring and informing initiatives across Abya Yala and Turtle Island. In one instance, Alejandro Argumedo
and others in the Lares Barter Market Biocultural Heritage Territory collaborate
with Appalachian-based seedkeeping coalitions (and Mayan ones in Yucatan,
Mexico) in a transnational, indigenous-led project: “Agrobiodiversity N ourishes/
Agrobiodiversidad Nutre: Community-Based Research, Policy & Guidance for
Agrarian Equity & Well-being”, now a Special Feature at the journal Elementa:
Science of the Anthropocene.
In short, there exists an abundance of initiatives percolating in a broader emergence of biocultural recognition and recovery, orientation and political commitment. Yet, they are often underrepresented, unsupported, and undervalued at the
federal – and thus the international – level of policy.
Ratified
As Biocultural Community Protocols and indigenous-led initiatives for
biocultural rights proliferate across Turtle Island, the U.S. government continues
to play an obstructionist role as the sole non-party of the CBD. But, meanwhile,
in 2016, the U.S. did ratify the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture, 15 years after the Treaty was approved and opened
for signatures and ratification. The U.S. government website announces and
explains this move as one of securing easy access:
Ready access to plant genetic resources – that is, seeds, bulbs, roots and
other materials from which plants can be reproduced – is needed to meet
the daunting challenges of feeding a growing global population, combating environmental degradation and constantly evolving pests and diseases,
and facilitating continued productivity of agriculture in the United States
and worldwide.
(U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome, 2017)