Background

Role of biocultural diversity on social-ecological sustainability

Biocultural diversity is the notion that biological and cultural diversity are dependent on each other, and that biological diversity is managed, conserved, and created by different cultural groups. Agricultural landscapes are visibly shaped by human practices, and in these areas the relationship between nature and culture runs deep, where everyday practices and traditions have coevolved with the environment over millennia. This is especially true in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes where the traditional management of the land have endured over millennia. However, these landscapes depend on human interventions and currently are threatened by their abandonment, driving by migration to more urban areas, intensification processes, or aging of population, having a direct impact on the human well-being of local communities.

Goals

Through an interdisciplinary methodology SCALABLE will identify how gender equity can promote pathways for future conservation of mountain agricultural in the biocultural regions of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in South of Spain. To this end, SCALABLE will:

evaluate current and future biocultural practices developed by local communities in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
map biocultural practices as elements for conservation of landscapes and the ecosystem services provided using a gender perspective.
identify future pathways to secure the maintenance of local well-being and the conservation of biocultural landscapes to foster gender equity and landscape sustainability.

By considering traditional ecological knowledge, perspectives and needs, SCALABLE will inherently address broader societal issues such as gender and environmental justice, with the last goal to support future development of rural areas in south of Spain.

Work in progress

Different fieldwork activities have been developed in the SCALABLE project. Innitial fieldwork activities started in December 2021 with preliminary visits to the case studies, contacts with local communities and later social samplings in rural regions in Almería, Spain.

A first semi-structured survey was carried out in early 2021, designed to identify main perceived drivers of change in the region and their connection to the loss of biocultural practices. This study was lead by the master student Carmen López-Zayas. Her master thesis identified leverage points for human-nature re-connectedness in the face of rural abandonment in the municipality of Purchena.
A second fieldwork campaing was carried out in February 2022. A semi-structured survey leaded by the master student Caterina Recalde exploredy specific activities which confront rural abandonment and create human well-being in rural areas.
In October 2022, two participatory workshops to map biocultural practices and elaborate future scenarios for it conservation in the municipality of Abrucena was leaded by the master student Ana Isabel Latorre. Her research will provide insights for strategies for future conservation of biocultural diversity.

To follow the progress of the project and updates you can follow us on ResearchGate and Twitter.