Biocultural diversity is the term used to conceptualize these interconnected manifestations of life together within a complex socio-ecological adaptive system. Ethnobotanical knowledge is an important component of biocultural diversity.

Recognizing more-than-human beings as our kin promotes a sense of familiarity and attachment, and a desire to care and nurture them. This view of kinship is not restricted to Indigenous peoples: scientists have hypothesized that all eukaryotic organisms (animals, fungi, plants and protists) share a common ancestor from about 2 billion years ago.

Commercialization of plants and increasing global demand, particularly of wild-harvested medicinal species, can lead to overexploitation, putting plant populations at risk. It is estimated that between 60 to 90 per cent of all medicinal and aromatic plants currently in trade are harvested from the wild. Traditional sustainable harvesting practices

In Africa and Asia in particular, governments and conservation NGOs have been appropriating land held by tribal and local communities in the name of conservation. Yet evidence shows that Indigenous peoples, who represent only 5 per cent of the world’s human population, are stewards of 80 per cent of Earth’s biodiversity and achieve equal or better

A study by the Natural History Museum in London, which measures biodiversity change across the world, found that the UK has lost nearly half its natural biodiversity – more than anywhere else in western Europe and in the bottom 10 per cent of countries in the world. Since the 1930s, 97 per cent of wildflower meadows alone have been lost in the UK,

The seasons are identified through signals from biodiversity, such as specific ‘calendar plants’ that indicate when it is the correct time to undertake fire management practices that reduce fuel load and lessen the risk of destructive wildfires. Calendar plants also inform First Nations peoples when it is the appropriate time to harvest certain

Reciprocity is a basic tenet of many Indigenous peoples across the world, who see themselves in a reciprocal relationship with planet Earth and other living beings; existing within an extended complex kinship system that includes all the natural elements of an ecosystem. Understanding this relationship through a kincentric ecological basis helps to

As stated in the Declaration of Kaua’i (from an Ethnobotanical Summit held at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kaua’i in 2007): ‘Ethnobotany can strengthen our links to the natural world. It makes it possible for us to learn from the past and from the diverse approaches to plants represented by the different human cultures that exist

Yet despite our dependence on plants – and maybe because of it – we are experiencing extinction rates far greater than expected, with 39.4 per cent, or two in five plants, currently threatened with extinction, according to estimates reported by botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Extinction rates are significantly faster than they have