Northern Arizona University

   

Safeguarding the Uniqueness of the Colorado Plateau
An Ecoregional Assessment of Biocultural Diversity

This ecoregional assessment focuses on the unique biological and cultural resources of the Colorado Plateau in the southwestern United States, the threats to the region’s astounding levels of biocultural diversity, and the possible means to safeguard or restore them. The Colorado Plateau is among the five most biologically diverse regions of the 110 defined ecoregions in North America, and it is likely the most linguistically and agriculturally diverse region on the continent. This “state of the ecoregion” report therefore models an approach for assessing not merely biological and cultural diversity and the interactions between them, but the unique assets of an ecoregion as well. The most unique assets of this ecoregion’s biocultural diversity are its endemic species, native language isolates, distinctive agricultural and wildlands management practices, and incomparable traditional ecological knowledge. In particular, we argue that this ecoregion has sustained high levels of biological diversity and endemism relative to the rest of North America because of the heterogeneity of culturally based land uses, traditional practices of vegetation management, and informal protection of traditional cultural properties.

Given that this ecoregion is relatively arid, we place strong emphasis on how water management by various resident cultures has affected biological diversity. Because land and water management strategies, values, and management “scripts” are linguistically encoded in the many indigenous and non-indigenous languages extant in the region, the maintenance of these diverse languages is deemed essential to maintaining this diversity, as is tribal sovereignty and multicultural conservation collaboration. We recommend great investment in multicultural collaborations that can result in ecoregional conservation planning to include corridors between protected areas both on and off the Indian reservations, lands which comprise nearly a third of all land on the Colorado Plateau. This assessment explores the biocultural diversity on the Colorado Plateau by addressing three themes: (1) its geology, climate, geography, and hydrology; (2) the biological adaptations to these heterogeneous physical conditions that have led to adaptive radiation of species, varieties, and populations; and (3) the cultural diversity of the traditional ecological knowledge, values, and practices that have sustained it.

These three themes are explored in the light of four primary concerns: (1) known historic levels of diversity and the current status of surviving (extant) elements of diversity; (2) contemporary ecological and economic trends threatening this extant diversity; (3) plausible scenarios for losing or retaining the ecoregion’s uniqueness; and (4) proposed options to safeguard and restore ecoregional diversity and uniqueness.

This assessment also demonstrates means by which multicultural collaborations can be promoted, incorporating the diverse voices of the region’s residents into a “state of the ecoregion” report that can both inform and inspire future actions.

For More Information:

Visit the U of A Press website
Or contact Marcelle Coder at (928)523-9188 or Marcelle.Coder@nau.edu.

   

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