Blog Series: Cultural Keystone Species and Places

Cultural Keystone Species and Places: Bringing Indigenous worldviews and value systems into species at risk conservation management

This blog series intends to share some reflections and learnings about Indigenous perspectives on species conservation, present frameworks that embody these perspectives, and discuss why Indigenous worldviews and approaches to “conservation” (a word that does not often translate directly to Indigenous languages) should be given equal space in Canadian policy.

 Acknowledging the intimate connection between species and place, this blog also presents Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) as an approach and tool for achieving greater biodiversity outcomes. Blog entries were the chosen format for this series because they were conceived as online spaces for reflection and knowledge sharing.

 Authors of the blog series feature members of the Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership’s (CRP) Biocultural Indicators and Outcomes Stream. At a recent meeting, we had an engaging conversation — and many questions — about the different ways of understanding, looking at, and interpreting the relationships between species. The terms we discussed included Species at Risk (SAR) and Cultural Keystone Species and Places (CKSP). Both terms include the word “species,” but as you’ll see in this series, these terms carry with them distinct worldviews about species conservation.

To explore the series, click on the blog entries below.