Disrupting and diversifying the values, voices and governance principles that shape biodiversity science and management

Abstract

With climate, biodiversity and inequity crises squarely upon us, never has there been a more pressing time to rethink how we conceptualize, understand and manage our relationship with Earth's biodiversity. Here, we describe governance principles of 17 Indigenous Nations from the Northwest Coast of North America used to understand and steward relationships among all components of nature, including humans. We then chart the colonial origins of biodiversity science and use the complex case of sea otter recovery to illuminate how ancestral governance principles can be mobilized to characterize, manage and restore biodiversity in more inclusive, integrative and equitable ways. To enhance environmental sustainability, resilience and social justice amid today's crises, we need to broaden who benefits from and participates in the sciences of biodiversity by expanding the values and methodologies that shape such initiatives. In practice, biodiversity conservation and natural resource management need to shift from centralized, siloed approaches to those that can accommodate plurality in values, objectives, governance systems, legal traditions and ways of knowing. In doing so, developing solutions to our planetary crises becomes a shared responsibility. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.

Keywords: biodiversity; environmental justice; equity; governance; kelp forest; sea otters.

Figure 1.

Haíɫzaqv, nuučaan̓uł and Xaayda governance principles are each represented as a strip of cedar bark. These pieces are woven together just as these governance principles are interconnected. Graphic by Arianna Augustine, Stz'uminus Nation, 2023. (Online version in colour.)