Integrating traditional knowledge and social and

cultural criteria for conservation and sustainable

use of coastal and marine resourcesChandrika Sharma

International Collective in Support of Fishworkers

Based on study UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/16/INF/10 CBD-GOBI Side-event on EBSAs at COP11

8 October 2012

Integrating traditional knowledge

• IPLCs possess traditional knowledge, innovations and practices important for conservation/ sustainable use

• Traditional/ local knowledge has an important role to play in identifying EBSAs, inshore and offshore

• Integrating traditional/local can provide: location-specific knowledge, increased knowledge of environmental linkages, local capacity-building and power sharing.

• Knowledge and practices of IPLCs have led to numerous traditional/ more recent marine management systems and strategies for governing biodiversity (many examples).

Social and cultural criteria

• Strong link between biological and social success—social conditions often determine long-term biological success of conservation initiatives.

• Important to identify social and cultural criteria for the selection and management of EBSAs, particularly in areas with pre-existing human populations/ uses

• Eventual management of the identified areas will be dependent on social, economic and cultural factors.

• Criteria have been devised by the IMO, the Wider Caribbean Region, The Mediterranean, the ASEAN Region, Palau, Australia, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Gulf of Maine and British Columbia

Social and cultural criteria

• Socio-cultural criteria based on an understanding of the social, cultural, economic and political processes patterning the area.

• The goal for applying such criteria may be maintenance and restoration of livelihoods and community well-being, protection of important cultural sites, community ownership of conservation and management activities…

• Approach likely to have benefits for both biodiversity and livelihoods, more sustainable in the long-term, culturally appropriate

Way to go• Review the way EBSAs are now identified• Ensure that the TK is integrated into the

process of identifying EBSAs and in deciding on mgmt measures (with FPIC)

• Take up research programmes where IPLCs members are treated as equal partners with scientists—to promote local capacity-building and power sharing

• Develop socio-cultural criteria for EBSAs to be used alongside the existing scientific criteria

• Refine sites identified through ecological criteria using social and cultural criteria

Thank you

Thank you