Water and Fish Conservation by Karen Communities: An Indigenous Relational Approach.

Scientists and conservation practitioners increasingly recognize the importance of Indigenous knowledge and worldviews that treat nonhuman nature as living relations rather than inert resources. There is growing realization that these relational values are essential not only to inform conservation efforts but to facilitate transformative societal shifts toward more harmonious ways of being with the Earth. This is good, and indeed long overdue. However, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) cautions, Indigenous Peoples' knowledge and specific practices "cannot be decoupled from their communal worldviews, practice and traditions." For many Indigenous Peoples, the goal of "conservation" or "resource management" is not to control land and "natural resources," but rather to maintain respectful and life-giving human relations with more-than-human social others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]