When Rights Embrace Responsibilities: Biocultural Rights and the Conservation of the Environment

Abstract

The conservation of environment and the protection of human rights are two of the most compelling needs of our time. Unfortunately, they are not always easy to combine and too often result in mutual harm. This book analyses the idea of biocultural rights as a proposal for harmonizing the needs of environmental and human rights. These rights, considered as a basket of group rights, are those deemed necessary to protect the stewardship role that certain indigenous peoples and local communities have played towards the environment. With a view to understanding the value and merits, as well as the threats that biocultural rights entail, the book critically assesses their foundations, content, and implications, and develops new perspectives and ideas concerning their potential applicability for promoting the socio-economic interests of indigenous peoples and local communities. It further explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between conservation of environment and protection of human rights. Table of Contents: Introduction - 1. An Environmental Crisis 2. Understanding Rights, Human Rights, and Group Rights 3. Friends and Foes: Rights, the Environment, and People 4. Of Rights and Responsibilities 5. Biocultural Rights: Handle with Care 6: Past, Present, and Future: Beyond Biocultural Rights