This is a timely, comprehensive contribution to the literature and practice at the nexus of international environmental law and human rights, that boldly addresses critical questions on the sovereignty and stewardship of biodiversity across a broad range of regional perspectives.
Elisa Morgera, Professor of Global Environmental Law, University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Environmental jurisprudence over the last two decades has been radically transformed. This epistemic shift is symbolized by the waning of the ideas of ownership and the ascent ideas of stewardship when it comes to lands and waters. The shift has been the result of a growing realization that the dominant discourse of private property has played a key role in the collapse of ecosystems and changing climate. Confronted with the existential question of survival of our species, communities, activists and academics have begun to ask ontological questions regarding the nature of the juridical subject. Specifically, what does it mean to be human and what is our relationship to the natural world. The book you have in your hands is a glorious map of stories, histories and analyses of what is arguably the most critical conversation of the Anthropocene. It consists of riveting essays by some of the best contemporary cartographers of political ecology. It is metacognition at its finest and I urge you to read it and let it transform you.
Sanjay Kabir Bavikatte, Co-founder of Natural Justice, Lawyers for Communities and the Environment and author of Stewarding the Earth: Rethinking Property and the Emergence of Biocultural Rights
In the late 1980s, Darrell Posey and others made the world aware of the inextricable link between biological and cultural diversity. This suggested the possibility of new legal and ethical frameworks, and broad-based actions especially at local level. This exceptional volume builds on Dr Posey's visionary work, showcasing the latest thinking on 'bioculturalism', an issue whose positive resolution all of us has a major stake in.
Dr Graham Dutfield, Professor of International Governance, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
