The necessity of including indigenous peoples’ perspectives when tackling the current environmental crises is well established in forums such us IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). However, mainstream conservation and policy making are marked by a colonialist approach that often clashes with indigenous worldviews. Typically discarding as superstition or irrelevant what we cannot explain or frame.
A growing number of scientists are claiming that it is precisely these contrasts where we should bring our attention to, instead of to what we have in common. We shall approach indigenous models with respect and curiosity, opening our imagination, and allowing a process of indigenizing our thinking. A recurrent appeal from indigenous leaders is that we must question our Western ways of thinking. It is clear that Western Society is producing negative effects that nobody wants. On the contrary, indigenous communities have been thriving with and enhancing biodiversity for millennia. Therefore, it is worthwhile listening to them.
For example, Indigenous Peoples do not conceive a distinction between nature and culture, the way we do. In the Amazonia, the whole forest is social. Plants, animals, rivers, mountains, all living beings and the elements have personhood. Moreover, there are “other-humans” who are responsible for and protect them, and have personhood too – often translated as spirits or owners, but these translations fall short. In their approach, all beings and the “other-humans” have agency and intentions. Both in daily activities and in ceremonies, humans communicate and negotiate with them, weaving a web of interrelations, exchanges and kinship, that keeps a dynamic balance in place.
Underneath this cosmovision lies another key difference. The colonial perspective that the Amazonia is a “virgin,” a “natural” and rather static ecosystem, still transpires today. However, the Amazonia has been shaped and is being reshaped by the human – non-humans interactions. Indigenous peoples have introduced innovations, ranging from fertile dark earth, crop cultivation, agroforestry, water management, to earthworks. Even where human action is not visible, there still is a human connection and transformation by thought. Similarly, the “other-humans” intervene in the socio-ecosystem bringing in their own changes and adaptations. Furthermore, indigenous practices are cyclical, tightly linked to the stars, seasons, and Earth rhythms, as a way of keeping a dynamic healthy balance and abundance for all in their world.
Conservation schemes that exclude or displace indigenous peoples are not sustainable. The land and the people are one and the same. A more inclusive and holistic approach to conservation, taking into account indigenous rights, practices and knowledge is key.
Beyond conservation, we could all benefit from being curious about other ways of thinking and of being in relationship. It is remarkable how indigenous leaders in the last decades have been speaking up, with their art, with their voices, with their writings, with their resistance. Many of them have even learned our languages. Perhaps if we took the time to listen closer to them and attempted to indigenize our thinking in our daily lives, we could begin to overcome our collective so called “crisis of imagination” and become true stewards of life.
Article by Verónica Lassus
References:
- Cassino, M. F. etal. (2025) Thinking with Amazonian Indigenous Peoples to expand ideas on domestication. People and nature (Hoboken, N.J.). [Online] 7(3), 560–574.
- Levis, C. et al. (2024) Indigenizing conservation science for a sustainable Amazon. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science). [Online] 386 (6727), 1229–1232.