Stewarding the earth : rethinking property and the emergence of biocultural rights.

Abstract

The thesis analyses the emergence of biocultural rights as a sub‐set of third generation, group rights in environmental law. It submits that these rights, which advocate a people's duty of stewardship over Nature, have arisen as a response to the world's ecological crisis. Indeed, the growing discourse about biocultural rights has begun a radical reconfiguration of the dominant notions property and the juridical subject. The thesis uses a multipronged approach, relying upon economic, anthropological, political and legal theories, to deconstruct the current concepts of private property from the perspective of indigenous peoples and traditional communities. It further presents evidence that this discursive shift is gaining formal legal recognition by referring to negotiations of multilateral environmental agreements, judicial decisions of regional and domestic courts and community initiatives. The thesis concludes with a description of the new biocultural jurisprudence including its application through innovative, community‐developed instruments such as biocultural community protocols.