Relationships between Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity are Scale Dependent

Abstract

Despite considerable efforts to promote biocultural diversity as a conservation objective, the spatial correlation between cultural and biological diversities, as well as its variation across geographic scales, remains unclear. In this study, we used Colombia as a case study to examine the relationships between biodiversity and cultural diversity at both national and ecoregional scales. Using municipality as the unit of analysis, we gathered data on a range of biological and cultural variables. We quantified six biodiversity indicators⎯species richness of freshwater fishes, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and number of ecosystems. For cultural diversity, we used seven indicators: music festivals, Indigenous reserves, AfroColombian lands, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage sites, museums, and native languages, as proxies for institutionalized cultural diversity. Diversity metrics adapted from ecology, including the Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) and the Inverse-Simpson Diversity Index (InvSDI), were used to calculate both biodiversity and cultural diversity at national and ecoregional scales. Our results suggest that biodiversity and cultural diversity are partially positively correlated at the national scale, as indicated by the InvSDI, which incorporates cultural data that the SDI omits. However, at the ecoregional scale, we found no consistent correlation, though both positive and negative trends emerged. This study presents a methodological innovation for quantifying biocultural diversity and raises important questions for future research on the connections between nature and culture.

Keywords: Biocultural diversity, Biological diversity, Biodiversity conservation, Cultural heritage, Ethnobiology, Sustainable Development