Indigenous biocultural conservation and well-being

There are no prerequisites for this study unit.

• Students achieve in-depth knowledge of Indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge, and how Indigenous peoples manage their human-environment collectives.

• Students have a good understanding of biocultural heritage and how to analytically approach human-environment relationality.

• Students understand Indigenous notions of the environment, well-being, sustainability, and biodiversity, which creates critical approaches to conservation acts and conservation history.

• Students gain new tools to solve environment conflicts by understanding ontological and epistemological differences.

Study material for an independent study or examination covering the content of this study unit:

1) Nelson, Melissa K. & Daniel Shilling 2018: Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

2) and choose two of the following:

Berkes, Fikret 2012: Sacred ecology. New York: Routledge.

De Cadena, Marisol 2014: Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds. Durham: Duke.

Dowie, Mark 2009: Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples. Cambridge (Massachusetts): MIT Press.

Elenius, Lars, Christina Allard & Camilla Sandström 2016: Indigenous rights in modern landscapes: Nordic conservation regimes in global context. London: Routledge.

Helander-Renvall, Elina 2016: Sámi Society Matters. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. London: Penguin Books, 2020.

Timing: Study units can be studied in the student’s own preferred order.

This lecture course is organised in the II period. Independent study possible throughout the year.

The course is part of Sustainability Studies Network(Opens in a new tab). The maximum number of students accepted through the network is 3. Network students will be selected in the order of registration.