Category Archives: Biodiversity

“[D]eforestation and landscape change [have lead to] unavailability of gum karaya Sterculia urens, kunkudukaaya Sapindus emarginatus, and honey as the larger gum and nut yielding and beehive preferred trees like Adina cordifolia and Dalbergia sissoo have been cut down.” – Vikram Aditya in “Displaced from the hills: Livelihoods of tribal communities in Eastern Ghats under threat” (Down to Earth, 24 February 2021)
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/forests/displaced-from-the-hills-livelihoods-of-tribal-communities-in-eastern-ghats-under-threat-75657
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=5629

“Cultivating and conserving diversity is no luxury in our times: it is a survival imperative.” – Physicist Vandana Shiva (co-founder of Navdanya and the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy (RFSTN)
https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/vandana-shiva/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=6068

“Biodiversity is under threat from a range of sources […] The question now is whether India is going to honestly identify what this underlying driver is and make a serious effort to balance the development versus nature battle.” – Tarsh Thekaekara (thesholatrust.org) in “Red marks in India’s green report card” (The Hindu, 17 October 2012)
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Red-marks-in-India’s-green-report-card/article12560107.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=7891

“In general, the sustainability, productivity, resilience and stability of socio-ecological ecosystems usually found in indigenous and rural communities are dependent on the cultural values exhibited by its indigenous peoples. […] The [formerly semi-nomadic hill tribe known as the ‘Kaani’] are an ethnic group with their own unique social institutions and organizations with self-rule, who prioritised harmonious relationships with their ecology through cultural and religious observations and beliefs.” – Danesto B. Anacio & Davidson Sargunam in a UNESCO report, “Knowing our Lands and Resources: Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices related to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Asia” (Knowledges of Nature 10.: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Paris 2017)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=24265

“It is no coincidence that where healthy Fourth World [Indigenous] nations live and prosper based on their freely chosen political, cultural, economic and social way of life the living Earth also thrives. Thus, it is no surprise that Fourth World nations occupy 80% of the world’s remaining biodiverse rainforests, plains, tundra, mountain regions, estuaries, rivers and streams, and deserts.” – Rudolph C. Rÿser (Founder, Center for World Indigenous Studies) in Biodiversity Wars: Coexistence or Biocultural Collapse in the 21st Century (2020), Chapter 1 “Original Peoples”
https://www.cwis.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Chapter-1_Biodiversity-Wars.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=37546

“In Search of Biohappiness deals with methods of converting agro-biodiversity hotspots into happy spots. This involves concurrent attention to conservation, and sustainable and equitable use. […] Concrete examples of how local tribal families have taken to the establishment of gene, seed, grain and water banks in villages – thus linking conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce in a mutually-reinforcing manner – are provided in this book.” – Summary for In search of biohappiness: biodiversity and food, health and livelihood security by M.S. Swaminathan (World Scientific, 2015)
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/910845554
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=11066