UCT R&I Highlights 2020-21 High res - Flipbook - Page 29
23
MAKING ECOLOGY MORE
EQUITABLE
Paper proposes five interventions to build a more anti-oppressive and
decolonial ecology.
1
2
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.
3
4
5
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.
CLICK HERE TO
READ THE ARTICLE
28
24
FAIR COMPENSATION
FOR COMMUNITIES
AFFECTED BY MINING
The many ways in which rural residents use and are connected
to their land must be weighed up, say researchers.
Recent work from the Land and
Accountability Research Centre at the
Department of Public Law sought to
identify elements that need consideration
to ensure just and equitable compensation
for communities displaced by mining.
Commonly, compensation analyses
such as this are focused on the market
value of land or immovables such as
homesteads. However, the centre’s
research proposes that this should be
broadened to include valuation of the
economic and cultural aspects of rural
residents’ dependence on their land to
support their livelihoods.
The research focused on residents of
Makhasaneni, consisting of about 300
households in the KwaZulu homeland. It
found that all households in the area were
involved in activities that relied on the
land, including access to home gardens,
firewood, honey and medicinal plants.
These activities not only provide a
valuable food source but play a social
role as well. Indeed, the researchers
revealed the communities’ interaction
with the landscape is firmly embedded
in their local identity.
“The many ways in which rural
residents use and are connected to their
land need to be weighed in their full
complexity to arrive at an understanding
of what it means to place an individual
in the same position that he or she
would have been, had the disruption and
dislocation from their land not occurred,”
concluded the researchers in an article in
The Conversation.
CLICK HERE TO
READ THE ARTICLE
29