Decolonial Conservation and Political Ethnobiology as a Pathway to Socio-Environmental Justice in the Global South
Bibliographic Data
Biodiversity conservation remains largely shaped by technocratic and colonial paradigms that marginalize the political agency of Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and racialized populations. In response, we propose Political Ethnobiology as a critical approach for a truly decolonial conservation. Grounded in Political Ecology, decolonial thought, feminism, and Ethnobiology, we argue that socio-environmental conflicts are not externalities, but arenas of negotiation regarding power, knowledge, and nature. We examine how hegemonic models reproduce epistemic violence and exclusion through the enclosure of territories and disregard for local autonomy, despite legal instruments for benefit-sharing. This scenario reflects a structural incompatibility with plural ontologies. By centering local experiences and those of racialized women, we highlight the disputes within conservation governance. Based on this, we propose four pillars for a People-Based Decolonial Conservation: (1) epistemic justice and co-authorship of knowledge, (2) people-based conservation and pluriverses, (3) ethics of Buen Vivir and socioecological reciprocity, and (4) institutional transformation and epistemic justice. We advocate for a paradigmatic shift that goes beyond symbolic inclusion, advancing toward the redistribution of power, the recognition of "pluriverses," and the construction of practices grounded in social justice, ecological reciprocity, and political accountability
Agency (philosophy) · Colonialism · Economic Justice · Environmental justice · Ethnobiology · Ethnography · Hegemony · Indigenous · Political ecology · Politics · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Mining and Resource Management
Designs for the Pluriverse
The Environmentalism of the Poor
Role of Brazilian Amazon protected areas in climate change mitigation
Decolonising Conservation Policy
Buen Vivir
Hard choices
The Care Principles for Indigenous Data Governance
Colonialismo climático e financeirização do carbono
The Epistemology of Resistance
Ethnobiology Phase VI
Critical social science perspectives on transformations to sustainability
Is it just conservation? A typology of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ roles in conserving biodiversity
Large-scale green grabbing for wind and solar photovoltaic development in Brazil
The open veins of Latin America
Cornered by PAs
Inawendiwin and Relational Accountability in Anishnaabeg Studies
Introduction to Special Section on Action Ethnobiology
Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America
Ontological Conflicts and the Stories of Peoples in Spite of Europe
Indigenous forest destroyers or guardians? The indigenous Batwa and their ancestral forests in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DRC
Epistemic bubbles and echo chambers in the progress of science
Climate coloniality and settler colonialism
Interpelação Das Mulheres Indígenas Sobre a Conservação De Seus Territórios
Ethnobiology! Until when will the colonialist legacy be reinforced
A Colonialidade Do Saber
The role of women in Brazilian ethnobiology
Argentine Ethnobiology
Is there a neocolonial stance in ethnobiology
Political Ethnobiology
Whose Knowledge, Whose nature? Biodiversity, Conservation, and the Political Ecology of Social Movements
Cuerpo-Territorio
Colonialidade
Os pronomes cosmológicos e o perspectivismo ameríndio
Mulheres negras
On the Coloniality of Being
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |