Cultural diversity and social stability – An alternative approach to conserve biodiversity

Background/Question/Methods

Climate change is expected to accelerate a loss of species. This is especially true for cold-water fish such as salmonids, an important resource for many people. Wherever salmonids and people overlap, there has always been a strong connection between them. These fish represent not only food, but also a broad spectrum of cultural values, traditions and human identities formed through human relationships to salmon. Thus, the loss of biological diversity results in the loss of cultural diversity.

How does interaction between people and the environment affect cultural and social contexts of communities?  How diverse are the cultural and social contexts that have formed through interactions with salmonid fishes? Are these social and cultural contexts critical to our (humans) well-being?  Would addressing the loss of human cultures help conservation of biological diversity? This paper addresses these questions by looking at the nexus between people and salmonids.

The author documented salmonid diversity and visited several communities to study their cultural and social identities that have formed through the link between them and salmonid fishes.  The visits included a Native American village in Alaska, communities along coastal California, villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and nomads in Mongolia. 

Results/Conclusions

The communities in the study view local salmon fishes as part of a cultural and social context.  This context was shaped by both economic and non-economic relationships with local salmonids but economic dependence on salmonids meant stronger social and cultural ties to the fish.  In these communities, loss of salmon resulted in disruption of social and cultural identity. 

This study found that salmon fishes were incorporated into the social and cultural identity of communities but the cultural context varied among the communities studied.  The social and cultural linkages were shaped through the variety of ways people were connected to the local salmon. This study shows that when a natural resource disappears, people’s connection to the resource is lost and so may the social and cultural identity of the community. This may create social/cultural instability and insecurity even if a proxy (e.g. a new food resource) is found that replaces the natural resource that the culture and traditions are built on. This connection between culture and resource provides for an alternative approach to conservation of species by focusing not only on ecosystem services but also on supporting the social stability of local communities.