Euroductions Biocultural Diversity
Biocultural Diversity in Europe
Biocultural diversity is formed from biodiversity (the variety of living things) and cultural diversity (the human cultures of the world, their languages, customs, and lifestyles), and represents the important link between culture and living things. Biocultural diversity is the various ways that human cultures interact with living species in nature, including the language they use to describe these interactions. Europe’s biocultural richness is seen in its environments, ranging from the polar regions to the sunny Mediterranean coast, which give opportunities for the many lifestyles seen throughout the continent. Small-scale, sustainable agricultural systems maintain many important habitats in Europe, and the loss of traditional lifestyles threatens these habitats and the species that live there. People survived for thousands of years with traditional and local understandings of the environment, and these have much to teach us about ways to live sustainably in the future as well.
Resources
Terralingua: This organization works to understand and protect the Earth’s biocultural diversity.
https://terralingua.org/
Society of Ethnobiology: This collaboration of researchers, communities, and activists examines and promotes traditional understandings of the relationship between people and the natural world.
https://ethnobiology.org/
Biocultural Diversity and the EU: A recent workshop (Oct. 2019) highlighted the contributions of biocultural diversity to sustainability and conservation efforts in the European Union. A summary of the workshop can be found at this link:
https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/...