In many parts of the world, people have developed strong emotional, artistic, spiritual, historical and ecological links to place. This social attachment to place is central to local people’s sense of self, forming an integral part of the social institutions, knowledge and practices that sustain much of the world’s biological diversity and the intricate, vital and fluid, relationship between people and their surrounding environment. Click here for a description of PPI's work on cultural landscapes in Peru and Bolivia. 

PPI’s Cultural Landscapes and Resource Rights Program is built on three premises. First, we understand that much of the world’s biodiversity, with all of its tangible and intangible values, is the product of the interaction between humans and their environment.  There are, in other words, few landscapes that are not ‘cultural landscapes’, even if the ‘culture’ element has been lost, forgotten, ignored or destroyed. 

Second, because cultural landscapes lie at the core of human experience, we believe that they offer a unique language, medium and opportunity to allow emplaced peoples to reflect upon, articulate and defend their place in a rapidly changing world, and in ways that guarantee their rights to self-determination. 

Third, because the attachment to place is profound, ongoing and dynamic, initiatives related to cultural landscapes offer an invaluable opportunity to address issues relating to social, spiritual and ecological alienation and disenfranchisement, both in urban and rural areas, and both among emplaced and displaced peoples. 

PPI does not develop or implement individual projects, but rather supports existing initiatives, responding whenever possible specific local demands for assistance, either by channeling funds, sharing technical assistance, or facilitating exchanges between researchers, practitioners, activists, institutions and initiatives sharing similar or complementary goals and approaches.  The kinds of activities we support include: 

Participatory processes to identify, document and/or map areas of ancestral use and occupation, and the environmental and social knowledge associated with ancestral landscapes.

Assisting emplaced, yet often disenfranchised, peoples address the threat of physical, territorial and social alienation following predatory invasion of their lands by loggers, mining and oil companies, colonization schemes, etc.

Improving or developing new tools and mechanisms to allow the exchange of appropriate knowledge, experience, technology and skills between resource users, practitioners, scientists and environmental justice activists.