The Chair
Through collaboration and common action, the co-chairs and partners are developing programs of knowledge co-creation and exchange that explicitly support biocultural diversity and sustainable development. These programs create avenues for reconciliation and the renewal of respectful and responsible relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and institutions.
The primary aim of the Chair is to promote biocultural diversity and sustainability through community-based, participatory action research and knowledge exchange. With our community, NGOs, and university partners in Canada, Latin America, and South Africa, we will:
- Document and address the opportunities and challenges related to biocultural diversity, sustainability, and gender equality;
- Demonstrate innovations in sustainability adaptations, practices, and governance founded on knowledge co-production “that draws on the full range of scientific, traditional and Indigenous knowledge in a trans-disciplinary way” (UNESCO MAB Strategy 2015-2025); and
- Enhance mutual understanding and relations among partners and between elders and youth through knowledge co-production, sharing, learning, and education.
Guiding Principles for Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research and Practice (2023) has recently been released as an open-access article in People and Nature. Authors include Maureen G. Reed, James P. Robson, Mariana Campos Rivera, Franciso Chapela, Iain Davidson-Hunt, Peter Friedrichsen, Eleanor Haine, Anthony Blair Dreaver Johnston, Gabriela Lichtenstein, Laura Lynes, Majing Oloko, Michelle Sánchez Luja, Sheona Shackleton, Marlene Soriano, Fermin Sosa Peréz, and Liette Vasseur. This article was featured in the Higher Ed Top Ten, which links to a story in Nature highlighting the importance of restructuring the approach to Global North-Global South research collaborations.