EN - Educational (Strategic Plan) - Flipbook - Page 28
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MAKING ECOLOGY MORE
EQUITABLE
Paper proposes five interventions to build a more anti-oppressive and
decolonial ecology.
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Ecological research and practice are
crucial to understanding and guiding more
positive relationships between people and
ecosystems. However, research co-authored
by Dr Chris Trisos, from UCT’s Africa Climate
and Development Initiative (ACDI), says the
discipline has been shaped and held back by
exclusionary Western approaches.
One area the researchers highlight is the use
of English as the dominant form of knowledge
communication in science. This, they say, can
lead to publication bias against scientists for
whom English is not a first language.
Access to scholarly literature and data
resources is another issue. Data and research
papers are often locked behind a paywall or
housed in servers and museums in the Global
North, even when the data collected was
from the Global South.
Analysis of change in social-ecological
systems must consider the impacts of
colonial histories and offer solutions in a
decolonial framework, says the paper. In
promoting this, it proposes five interventions
for practising ecology in a reflective,
equitable and inclusive way.
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Decolonise your mind, to include
multiple ways of knowing and
communicating science.
Know your histories, to acknowledge
the role research has played in
enabling colonial and ongoing violence
against peoples and nature, and begin
processes of restorative justice.
Decolonise access, by going beyond
open-access journals and data
repositories to address issues of data
sovereignty and the power dynamics
of research ownership.
Decolonise expertise, by amplifying
diverse expertise in ecologies from
local experts and giving due credit and
weight to that knowledge.
Practise ethical ecology in inclusive
teams, by establishing diverse and
inclusive research teams that actively
deconstruct biases, so all team
members are empowered participants
in developing new knowledge.
“These actions are not offered as a
checklist capable of undoing unjust systems
worldwide, nor to overshadow long histories
of place-based anti-colonial and anti-racist
struggle, but as connection points to action
for practising ecologists,” said Trisos.
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