Valorando e valorizando o conhecimento ecológico tradicional: a conservação do saber local no instrumento de acesso e repartição de benefícios da biodiversidade

Abstract

The Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is an instrument of environmental policy, that comes from the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Within its scope, the ABS also makes use of the traditional knowledge aiming to achieve the conservation of biological diversity. In 2018, the Conference of the Parties reinforced the need to value them and avoid cultural impacts in the ABS implementation. We noted, then, that the term biodiversity is linked to a context that goes beyond the concern with biological diversity, involving the conservation of culture-nature relations of certain collectivities. However, the ABS instrument has been based on approaches that transform biological and cultural diversity into commodities. This research therefore questions whether and how the ecological economics approach can contribute to maintaining the resilience of traditional knowledge through ABS. The specific objectives are: a) analyze the role of traditional knowledge in the context of producing intangible benefits offered by biodiversity and the valuation of this culture-nature relationship through the ABS; b) relate the notion of resilience with the conservation of local knowledge of traditional communities; c) incorporate ecological economics guidelines for integrating the complexity of practices that link the social and the ecological at a local scale in the ABS in order to foster the resilience of traditional knowledge; d) indicate strategies that can guarantee the resilience of local knowledge in the implementation of the ABS. To achieve the proposed objectives, this research adopted the hypothetical-deductive method and bibliographical and documentary research techniques for the construction of case studies of Brazilian, North American and European ABS. In addition, the Brazilian ABS model was evaluated using the SWOT method to enable the elaboration of an action plan. As a result, we identified the need to broaden the debate on biodiversity beyond its traditional meaning in order to support conservation actions of culture-nature relations that encourage the conservation of species and their sustainable uses. In the ABS logic, local knowledge works as the link between natural resources and human beings, being fundamental for the production of the various benefits offered by biodiversity. The research also found that the resilience approach allowed for a change of perspective on the conservation of local knowledge. But it is still insufficient to deal with crucial aspects of the ABS. We also found in the subfield of socio-ecological economics a support to conduct the investigation of strategies in favor of the resilience of local knowledge in the ABS instrument. In the Brazilian ABS model, several weaknesses and threats were identified by the SWOT method. Regarding foreign experiences, Canada adopts strategies that recognize and value the self-management capacity of traditional communities. France opted for the creation of legal entities under public law to represent communities at all stages of the ABS procedure. But it is in the Peruvian experience that we found strong protection not only of traditional knowledge but also of cultural and ethnic diversity. We concluded that ecological economics contributed to legal reflection on the resilience of local knowledge in the ABS as a pre-analytical research view.