Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous People and Protected Spaces of Nature

Abstract

The book Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous People and Protected Spaces of Nature offers a rich variety of perspectives on how current land management trends interface with Indigenous ways of knowing. The chapters address diverse social-ecological contexts, from the Mayan Biosphere reserve area in Central America, to Scandinavia ’ s S (cid:1) apmi (territory of the Sami people), to Blackfeet territory in the present-day United States, to M (cid:3) aori land in Aotearoa, to Manxineru and Mashco-Piro territory in the Amazon. The book is available open access, and thus provides an excellent example of “ walking the walk ” when it comes to democratizing academic work. Most chapters have maps and photographs that both orient the reader and remind us that the concepts and histories discussed are deeply grounded in real people and places. Many of the book ’ s authors identify as Indigenous (multiple chapters are collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors), which is an important component of the book ’ s contributions to rec-ognitional (or epistemic) justice. The book